


Goddess Blood

by NaughtyTome



Series: Dramatic Dimension Neptunia [1]
Category: Hyperdimension Neptunia
Genre: Action/Adventure, Amnesia, Character Death, Dreams and Nightmares, Gen, Saving the World
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-25
Updated: 2020-12-28
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:42:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 24
Words: 70,669
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27197323
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NaughtyTome/pseuds/NaughtyTome
Summary: What if the Neptunia series is a bit more dramatic, sad, and complicated? Well, to me that is what neptunia needs. So, I decided to make a story that really bothers my mind. (Please don't hate me for this.)
Series: Dramatic Dimension Neptunia [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1993990
Comments: 1
Kudos: 4





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> This story was written in Fanfiction.net. But I decided to write it in here too.

Prologue"

*huff* *huff*"

In the midst of a great scenery, where trees were scattered, lands were floating, and filled with green- colored grass, there were four goddesses of Celestia, having a conflict among themselves. For how long they've been doing it, is something they only knew themselves.

Celestia, is what this place is called. It was a holy land that were floating up in the sky, with a great scenery and also the stage of the goddesses to determine who is worthy of ruling Gamindustri. In a nutshell, this place is a battlefield.

"You're all so stubborn, why don't you give up now?" One of the goddesses in black demanded.

"Ridiculous. We've been fighting for hundreds of years, why give up now?" One of the goddesses in purple replied back.

"You took the words off my mouth. I won't let any of you take the title of the True Goddess!" Said the other goddess in white.

"*Sigh* How long are we going to put up with this farce?" The goddess in green said.

The goddess with blue hair prepared her weapon, a giant axe before speaking again. "Well then, do us a favour and die!" She then charged to the goddess of green, but then she was easily repelled.

"My, such barbaric manners. I have matters to fulfill in the future, unlike you."

"Shut yer trap! I hate it when you talk high n' mighty, Thunder Tits!"

The goddess of green popped a nerve after hearing that remark from the goddess of white.

"H..Huh? Breasts are a symbol of maturity and fertility, qualities befitting a goddess." She then narrowed her eyes and smirked as she stared at a certain part of the white goddess' body.

"With that logic, it also can be said that you're the least. fitting." She said as she tried to hide her chuckles.

"The hell's that?! All that crap talkin' out yer ass. I'm gonna kill you!"

Between their bickering, someone interfered and attempted to slash both of them.

"Got you!"

CLANG!*

"Wha-?!"

"Damnit, that was close!"

It was the goddess of black.

"Ahahahaha! That's what you get for spacing out in a battlefield!"

The goddess of green sighed in disappointment. This endless stalemate is really tiring her.

"Really, just how long will this stale last?"

"Well then, why not eliminate one of you?" A voice suddenly spoke from nowhere.

"True. That could be a factor of the change that we've been looking for." The goddess of green said.

The goddess of black agreed. "Not a bad idea."

The goddess of purple didn't seem to get what change they were talking about.

"What? What are you all talking about?"

But she was ignored.

"So, who's the unlucky one to be toasted?"

The voice from nowhere spoke again. "Purple Heart.. Neptune, if I may suggest."

"It would be difficult to get her out of the picture later, so I can agree to that." The goddess of the green said.

"Yeah, I'm fine with that."

The goddess of purple seem to be confused about the behaviour of the other goddesses.

"Who are you three talking to?"

Again, she was ignored.

"Ahahahahahaha! It's settled then, so don't hold it against us!"

Purple Heart was alarmed. She sensed danger from the three. With that said, she realized that the change they were talking about was them eliminating her.

"What?! What are you all talking about?!"

In an instant, the goddess of black charged towards Purple Heart, in which their swords clashed.

"Not bad."

"Kuh-!"

As they broke apart, the goddess of white then charged to Purple Heart, without giving her a chance to catch her breath.

"Just do us a favour and die!" She jumped off and attempted to crush the goddess of purple to the ground, but it was easily evaded.

"Damn you!"

The goddess of black and green then decided to join the fray.

"Take this!"

"Too slow!"

Weapons could be seen clashing in midair, along with the sparks scattering every time they made contact.

"Prepare yourself!"

"Die!"

Purple Heart's opponents charged towards her simultaneously in all directions.

"I won't lose!"

She jumped upwards and evaded all of their attacks right before they hit her.

"Hiyaaahh!"

She then countered every attack delivered to her and repelled back her opponents.

"Eat this!" The goddess of black charged back to Purple Heart.

She delivered continuous attacks to her, leading Purple Heart on the defensive. But that didn't last long, as the goddess of green jumped towards her, attempting to slice her into two.

"You're slow! Take this!"

In an instant, Purple Heart dashed backwards, evading the goddess of green's attack.

"I won't let you escape!"

The goddess of purple continued to defend herself from the continuous assault of her opponent, leaving her which has been taken advantage by the open, goddess of white.

"It's time for you to die!" She then attacked her upwards, making Purple Heart let go of her weapon.

"Ngh!" The goddess of purple moved back to retrieve her weapon, but before she could even touched her weapon's hilt. The goddess of white threw her gigantic axe, aiming at Purple Heart's arm.

"Die!"

The goddes of purple watched in horror with wide eyes, as her right hand has been chopped and blood rushing out of it, thanks to White Heart's axe.

Before she could react, the goddess of green throw her spear at the goddess of purple's other arm, pierce and right through it, sending the goddess of purple flying before pinned her againts a nearby tree.

"Now its time for you to dissappear!" said the goddess of black, as she rushed at the pinned goddess with her hand gripped into her sword tightly, ready to stab her anytime.

Purple Heart looked up to see Black Heart's face, who was full of hatred and probably without any regrets in it.

'Am I... gonna die?' Purple Heart thought. 'Is this the end for me?' Black Heart become closer and closer. 'Mama... I'm sorry... for not able to save gamindustri... just like you asked me to...'

Eventualy, Black Heart's sword stabbed Purple Heart directly on her heart, killing her instantly, leaving only a sad look on her face.

* * *

"NO!" a voice shouted from inside a sealed book that was currently just sat on top of an altar in a dark room. "This can't be... this can't be..." the voice continued. "A goddess can't die... they're immortal... but... but why can't I sense her anymore?"

"Muahahahahahahaha!" Suddenly, a melodramatic laugh was heard nearby. "Isn't this great, Histoire? your lovely cute little Neptune has gone, which would make things easier for me to do."

A black figure appeared, and it walked into the book called Histoire who was just lying on the altar.

"You're the one who gives them that advice? didn't you?"

"Who else could it be if not me? this was just the beginning of the story, Histoire. The death of her was just the thing that I needed the most."

Histoire just fell silent, if the console war was already bad, then this one will be worse than she could've imagined.

"Watch as Gamindustri fall into chaos with my hands!"

As the black figure disappeared. Histoire could be heard crying inside her sealed book, she could only wish the best for this world CPUs, and that one day she could finally break out from her seal. But there is only one wish, that keeps crawling into her mind...

"Neptune... my... beloved daughter... please... come back..."

Even though she knows that her last wish was absurd and almost impossible to be granted, she still believed in it.

To be Continued...


	2. Rebirth

Gamindustri.

A land composed of three landmasses.

Lastation, Lowee, and Leanbox. Each of these land are ruled and protected by a seperate goddess, also known as Console Patron Unit, CPU in short.

CPU Black Heart, the guardian goddess of her 'Land of Black Regality' Lastation.

CPU White Heart, the guardian goddess of her 'Land of White Serenity' Lowee.

CPU Green Heart, the guardian goddesa of her 'Land of Green Pastures' Leanbox. 

Over a hundreds of years ago, in Celestia, the CPUS are clashed each other in the endless Console War for the rule of Gamindustri. It was rather a ruthless fight between them, as the battle continues on for ages without any sign of being stoped.

That is however, until that tragedy happened. After so many years of battle, the CPUS are finally decided to end their battle with one more final fight, and that is, to team up with each other, and killed the strongest CPU among them, CPU of Planeptune, Purple Heart.

Ever since that tragedy, the land of purple progress, Planeptune, has fallen from it's might. And now, it was just a distant memory, leaving only a wasteland where monster's nest that suddenly appeared not long after the tragedy, were located.

It was because of her death, that Planeptune lost it's devine protection, leaving the citizens of the nation unprotected from the danger. With this happening, the people quickly migrating to the other landmasses, seeking for protection of the other CPU, who could do nothing much to the monster sudden appearance, aside from doing their best to protect the people from the hideous human-eating monsters.

However, even though hope seems to be lost, and faith seems to disappear, some people still believe in Purple Heart, and hoping that their beloved goddess of purple is still alive somewhere. These people are live in a certain remote area of Planeptune which provided safety for the believers from the rampaging monsters in the land that used to be called the nation of the future.

Although the other goddesses called these people a useless, pathetic believer, they didn't give up. Every single day, they put their faith and all of them wishes for the return of their beloved goddess of purple, but sadly, nothing happened at all.

Until...

* * *

Planeptune, hidden capital city...

The streets are quiet, since there's not many people are in the mood for hanging around outside their house. What makes it worse, the sky was also cloudy, indicating that it will be rain soon.

Walking slowly on the streets while carrying a bag full of foods, a girl who has long light congo-pink hair with matching congo-pink eyes, a tan-white wool sweater top with and matching arm warmers and boots, but with fuzzy balls at the top. And also wears a red plaid skirt, a black choker with a small heart on it, black-brown knee-socks with light pink heart cut frills, and carries a black hip purse, and heart shaped buttons. Like her headband, both her purse and the heart on the choker has C logo on it.

Looking at the sky, she let out a soft sigh. "It looks like it's gonna rain again, I wonder why it's almost raining everyday these couple of weeks." the girl said with a worried voice, wondering about what was happening in the continent's sky.

Decided to ignore it for now, she continued her walk to her home, greeting some people on her way.

Entering her home, the girl put the bag on top of her kitchen table and start to put the food in the right place as tidy as possible.

Several minutes later, the girl found herself sitting on her couch in her living room, turning on her TV who was showing a breaking news.

"Breaking news, at todays afternoon, Haneda city has been attacked by hordes of monsters, resulting with many casualties and several injuries, aside from that, the military cannot do much more than to make sure that the monster didn't go much further from the city. With how things were, Haneda city will be closed as long as the monsters are still there."

As she continues to watch the TV, her phone rang, indicating that she got a call. Answering it, she began. "Hello, this is Compa."

"Compa, can you please come to the hospital? It was now full with injured people from Haneda city, and I need some help from you here, do you mind?"

"Not at all, Doc. I'll be right there." Hanging it, the girl now known Compa, turned off her TV while sat up from her seat.

After wearing a raincoat, she quickly made her way to the hospital that was relatively close to her house.

Once she got there, Compa could feel the gloomy and serious aura that surounds the building. With nurses and doctors are busy with patients. As she walked through the corridors, she meets the person who called her earlier. "Good to see you doctor. How's the patients?"

"Good to see you too, Nurse Compa. We could handle things so far, but since there's too many of them, we were forced to call out all of the doctors and nurses as you can see." The kind doctor explained the situation.

"Anything else that I could do to help?" Compa asked energetically.

"Yes of course," the doctor replied. "Several minutes ago, we've finally got the last injured who was found stuck in the ground, with her head inside and her legs sticking out of the ground.

"Really? Is she okay?" Compa asked with a worried tone.

"There's no serious damage to her body, except, a one fatal blow on her head, we don't know what's gonna happen to her thanks to that, but at least she's still alive." the doctor explained.

Compa only nodded before several minutes later, she was ordered by a doctor to visit the said girl's room.

As she entered the room, Compa felt like there was something unusual in this room as she stared at the body of the said girl. The girl has a short lilac hair with bangs that reach down to her collar bones. On her head, there were bandages wrapped around it with a little bit blood staining it.

As the girl slept peacefully, Compa got to the bedside and looked at the patient info. "Ms. Neptoon. Nettuune. Nep.tumor. Nep." and it looks like she couldn't spell the patient's name correctly for some reason.

Decided to ignore it for now, she continued to do what she was ordered to, while still wondering about the unusual sensation that she got for just staring at the sleeping short haired girl.

Unknown to the nurse, however, the shorter girl was mumbling in her sleep, as her consciousness is half asleep and half dreaming.

* * *

Elsewhere...

A certain short purple-haired girl, slowly opened her eyes as she regains her consciousness, and all she could see was dark, pitch dark.

"It's." she began. "It's so dark in here, like. pitch black."

She looked down to find herself floating in the darkness that seems to be bottomless.

"Where am I? Was there a power outage? Wh-Where's the circuit breaker?"

A moment later, her body started to glow in the darkness, helping her to see her surroundings, but couldn't find nothing else than darkness.

"Why'm I glowing like i've been splashed with fluorescent paint and stuck under a black light?" She asked, but no one answered her question.

Eventually, the silences of the darkness started to freak her out.

"H-hellooo.. is anybody out here?" no answer. "Can I walk around?" she tried to move her legs to find out that she was indeed could walk around the darkness. "But ew, who knows what I could've stepped in? It could be like. ABC gum! Should I just wait for more texts to pop up?"

And so she waited, and waited, and waited, before her eyes starting to feel heavy.

_"I Apologize for the delay. Have you been here long?"_

Suddenly, a mother fairy like voice appeared in the darkness, causing the girl to open her eyes as fast and wide as she could.

"Whoa! A voice, I heard a voice!" the girl yelled in shock. A moment later, she realized a certain word that the mysterious voice just said. "Delay? Delay for what? My soul go to heaven? N-No! I don't wanna die yet!"

_"Neptune, please, stop being calm down. I did not intend to scare you with my words."_

This time, it was the first sentence that makes the girl more confused.

"Ne. Nep. tune... Neptune? Who... is that? Is that. my. name?" the girl hesitantly asked for confirmation.

There was silence, as the voice didn't reply, but after a brief moment, she finally answers it.

_"Yes.. it is your name.. and only name."_

The voice replied, but if someone listened to it closely, they could hear that somehow there was a hint of sadness and despair on it's tone.

"Then.. who are you?" the girl asked with curiosity.

_"I am Histoire, a tome. you don't have to be worried, since you're just in a state of coma for now. I am reaching out for you to ask a favor."_

"A tome? what kind of thing is that? And wait, I'm in a state of coma!? I knew it, I'm so dead!" the girl begins to panic again _._

_"Please Neptune. Take a deep breath. You have not died. You have merely fallen unconsciousness for days."_

Neptune decided to do just what Histoire said to calm herself down, before finally asking her again.

"So... His. toire. Histoire, how do you know my name and most importantly, my condition right now?" she asked with curiosity in her tone.

_"..."_

The voice, paused herself for a little bit, before answering.

_"I know you are in doubt, but I am Histoire, the tome that has assisted the goddesses of Celestia for generations. I stand for the world's everything and the world is my everything. There is nothing I do not know. But most of all, I was your..."_

The voice trailed off as she remembered something, something that made her stopped from continuing that word.

_"No.. I was no longer your mother."_

The voice muttered softly as there was a hint of sadness inside of it.

"Wait, what did you just said?" Neptune asked, clearly a bit shocked, even though she didn't hear the last sentence properly.

_"N-No, it's. it's nothing that you need to worry about, forgive my rambling."_

"Are you... okay?"

_"Ah, yes I'm fine. totally. totally fine."_

Suddenly, the voice disappeared, as the darkness in Neptune's surrounding was also started to replaced by a bright light, as she woke up from her unconsciousness state.

* * *

"..mmhmm.."

A certain purple-haired girl opened her eyes slowly as she regained her consciousness. She met an unfamiliar ceiling, with her body feeling a little heavy as she could not really move it the way she wanted to.

"Where. am I..?"

"Oh, you're up. Good morning, sleepy head! Well, good afternoon, technically..."

A sound of a young girl making the short purple-haired girl turned her head to see a long light congo-pink haired girl, in a nurse outfit, walking to the bed she found herself on top of it.

"Uh. where am I now?" the purplenette asked. "What is this room? is it yours? and why'm I tucked to this bed so snugly?"

"We're in Planeptune central city hospital. you're a patient in here, and I was a nurse tasked to check you up." explained the clumsy looking girl.

"Hospital..? Why am I here? do I have some sort of decease or something?"

The pink haired girl closed her eyes, before begining to talk.

"Well, let's see. It all happened three days ago. When I was home from my shopping trip, I was called by the hospital to nurse the patient of the Haneda city incident. And one of them was you."

"Haneda city. incident." suddenly an image of memories flashes through her brain, making her head ache a little, but enough to make her hand grabbing onto it. "Ugh!"

"H-Hey! A-Are you okay?" the pink haired girl asked in worried.

After the pain goes away, the purplenette sighed in relief. "Y-Yeah. I'm. I'm okay, thanks for asking." the girl le's out a soft sigh before looking at the pink haired girl. "But I'm curious, what do you mean about Haneda city incident?"

Once again, the pink haired girl, paused for a little while before finally answering.

"Well, it was an incident that happened recently. In short, haneda city was attacked by a horde of monsters five days ago, many people were die because of it, but some people are managed to avoid their deaths that day, and so those who survive the incident are treated in here. You are one of them, aren't you?"

"I..." the purplenette tried to say something but she couldn't remember anything at all. "I don't remember..."

The pink haired girl was of course shocked by this. "You don't remember? then that means, maybe you suffering from amnesia."

"Do you think so?"

"Well, I've never seen a case in person. How original! Maybe you bumped your head.." the pink haired girl put her fingger in her chin, thinking. "By the way, we forgot to introdouce ourself! My name is Compa, what is your name?"

"It's..." the girl paused for a moment before remembered something.

_"Neptune, Yes it is your name... and only name."_

She smiled softly. "It's Neptune, nice to meet you Compa. Or should I call you... Com... uh.. whatever, Compa's fine."

"It's nice to meet you too, Nept.. Nepee... Neptaa-.. Ne-pelvis.. Nep... tumor. W-Wah." And it looks like she met with the same problem again.

"Oh, is it confusing you? Okay, then you can call me Neptuna, Nep-Nep, Neppermint, or something else!"

"Okay, then I pick Nep-Nep. It's nice to meet you too, Nep-Nep!"

And so, the girls spend their day talking about a lot of common things until finally Neptune is free to go after the doctors make sure that there are nothing dangereous that threathen her life.

To be Continued...


	3. Growing Determination

"Um, Compa..." Neptune begins, as the two of them walking around on the peaceful streets of Planeptune Capital City.

Neptune was now wearing a white hoodie dress that has a light purple hood, strings that look like controller plugs, and two huge purple and white pockets with purple D-Pad symbols on them. The sleeves have two light blue stripes going all the way down while the front of the hoodie only contains one. The ends of the sleeves and the bottom of the hoodie have dark and light purple stripes. The zipper emblem and the back of the hoodie has a purple letter "N" to represent the first symbol of her name. She wears light blue and white striped thigh high socks with frills at the tops and her shoes are purple and blue, and In her hair she wears white hair-clips in the shape of D-pads and around her neck is a choker that has a light blue D-pad symbol on it.

"Hmm? What is it, Nep-Nep?" Compa asked curiously.

"Where did you find this?" Neptune asked while looking down to the clothes that she's wearing.

"Well, I don't get much of the detail, but I've heard the doctors said it was founded inside a destroyed house back in Haneda city. It has your name on it, which means it's yours, right?" Compa explained while smiling.

Neptune sighed, remembering the first time she saw it, she couldn't remember if it was indeed her's or not, but judging from the sudden headache that hit her that time, and the fact that it has her name written on it, it's probably the best for assuming it was her's for now. "Maybe...?"

"Just believe in it for now, who knows if it was true." Compa said with a smile.

Neptune said nothing any further as they continued their walk, until finally they reach their destination.

A park, a beautiful park filled with lilac and many other flowers, grass was covering the ground, and there were several fountains nearby, and in the middle of the park, was none other than a stone statue of a beautiful woman, with twin braided twin tails, and what it looks like a bodysuit with four wings, she was carrying a large sword in her hands, and doing a pose with it.

Just by looking at the woman statue's face, made Neptune feel confused and also sad at the same time, she was confused because even if Compa doesn't notice it, she could see sadness and sorrow on the statue's face, and for some reason it makes her sad.

"Nep-Nep? Are you... okay?" Compa asked with a worried tone. "You're crying."

Neptune quickly rubs her face to find that she was indeed crying, but she couldn't find the answer why she was crying.

"Compa," Neptune began. "Who is this person?" the purplenette asked while pointing at the statue with her finger.

"Oh, that? It was Planeptune's former guardian Goddess, miss Purple Heart. You didn't know her, Nep-Nep?" Compa sighed as Neptune shook her head. "Ah, that's right, you have amnesia, but to even forget about the goddesses? Isn't it too much for memory lost?"

Neptune shook her head, and goes to a nearby bench to sit down and trying to figure the reason she's feeling sad, Compa joined her on the seat a moment later.

"Tell me Compa, what is the goddesses?" Neptune asked while looking at her curiously.

"Well, let's see..." Compa closed her eyes as she think the way to explain things. "This world is called Gamindustri, a place where there are two different worlds that was floating in the sky. first, is a place where goddesses reside and live called Celestia, and then there were the world bellow Celestia, which are the one that we were in."

Neptune nodded motioning Compa to continue.

"In this world, there are four major landmasses floating around, sometimes they are come close to one another and drift away. These landmasses are: Leanbox, Lowee, Lastation, and Planeptune. Each of them are protected by a goddess, and people go to the Basilicom to worship them and help govern each land." Compa explained.

"You said that this was the statue of the former Guardian Goddess of Planeptune, right?" Compa nodded. "What happened to her?"

Compa closed her eyes as she was thinking about how to answer the question. "She died in battle of the ancient Console Wars, hundreds of years ago. It was the other three goddesses who killed her by teaming up against her, but at least, that is what my grandpa said."

"Teaming up against her... that's... that was cheating, isn't it?"

Compa lets out a sigh, before staring at the statue again. "And now, without her presence here, Planeptune was doomed due to the lack of divine protection that she used to gave this continent, and us, her believers."

Neptune looked at Compa with confusion. "So you still believe in her despite of her being dead?" Neptune asked.

Compa only nodded, before reaching out to her pocket and pulled out a set of lilac flowers. She then stood up and walk into the front of the statue and placed the flower in front of it. "May you rest in peace, our dear beloved goddess." Compa muttered in a low tone, but enough for Neptune to hear it.

With her visit has been finished, Compa turned around to find Neptune picking up some flowers around the park, and do the same thing that she did, with the only differences is that, Neptune have this kind of face that a person have when they visit their loved one's grave.

"Nep-Nep... are you sure you are okay?" Compa asked with a concerned tone.

Letting out a soft sigh, Neptune shook her head. "Yes, I'm fine. Thanks for asking though." she then give the statue a last glance before walking away with Compa following her. "So, where are we going next?"

"My house, It's not too far from here, but do you at least have something to buy before we go there? It's still early you know."

The purple-haired girl smiled while rubbing her stomach. "Yeah, let's do that. My tummy is really begging for food now."

Hearing that, making the other girl giggled. "Okay, let's go look around the town."

* * *

"Nep-Nep, have you tried one of these before?" Compa asked while giving Neptune a plastic cup full of yellow colored substance with a brown cream on top of it.

After receiving it, the short purple-haired girl stared at the unknown thing that she was holding. "Um, what is this?"

"That? That's a pudding, a custard pudding." the girl answered, smiling.

"This is pudding? hmm... I have no idea what this is." Neptune said while opening the lid. "It's yellow and whoa! it's winggles when you poke it!"

"Nep-Nep... are you lost your memory of food, too?" Compa asked while looking at Neptune with concern.

"...Well, I remember "cake" and stuff, so I guess I really don't know what it is." still, even if she didn't know, Neptune unwrap the plastic spoon off of the lid and dive it into the yellow colored substance, before putting it inside her mouth, a moment later her eyes widened and sparkling as she taste the sweetness of pudding for the first time.

"Well, how is it?"

"The tantalizing sweetness melts away on my tounge! This is the best!"

"Really...?"

"Really! This has got to have been made by the finest chef in the world!" Neptune said before digging for more and eventually gulp all of it at once. "How do I get more?" she asked while swiping her mouth with her parka sleeve.

"Well, I actually made it myself."

Neptune was shocked to hear this, to think that her first friend after she got amnesia was not only a nurse in training, but also a chef that made her now most favorite food in the world.

"Amazing... Compa, you are a genius..."

"Oh, stop teasing me, Nep-Nep. There's more in my house, if you want more."

The girls then continue their walk throughout the hidden capital city of Planeptune, before briefly stop when something in the distance caught the attention of Neptune.

"Nep-Nep, what's wrong? do you see something?" Compa asked with confusion as her friend suddenly stopped walking and staring at something in the distance.

A moment later, Neptune aproaches the thing, which turns out to be, a wooden sword dumped in a trash bin, and judging from the looks of the sword, looks like it's only been there for a few days.

"Hm, Is this a stick? a special one? or... could it be... a sword?" Neptune muttered while examining the sword in her hand.

"Well, I think it is looks like a sword or some kind. But what are you going to do with it, Nep-Nep?" Compa asked confusingly.

"Well, um..." suddenly, a flash of memory appeared in Neptune's mind, while the memory itself was unclear, it was more than enough to give Neptune a major headache, along with the realization that this thing right here have something to do with her past.

"Ugh!" clutching her head while letting out a pained hiss, Neptune decided that it was the best to keep the wooden sword for now.

"Nep-Nep? are you okay?" Compa said with concern as she looked at the sight of Neptune's grimacing face.

After the headache's gone, Neptune letting out a sigh of relief, and shook her head. "I'm fine, Compa. Shall we get going?"

Compa was about to ask Neptune about what was going on earlier, but decided agints it for now.

As they continued their walk to their destination, Neptune looked down at the sword in her hand.

'That girl who was swordplaying with this sword on a field, is that me? or someone else I used to know?'

* * *

Sitting on a couch in Compa's room, Neptune was smiling happily as she finished the last pudding in the fridge.

"Nep-Nep, are you, uh, always eating this much?" Compa asked, slightly impressed with how much cup of puddings that her friend has been eaten.

"Well, to be honest with you, I think it was the first time I ate this much, because your homemade pudding is sooo delicious!" Neptune said hapily.

Compa looked at Neptune happy face, wondering how the girl could change from a happy excitable girl, into a sad sorrowful girl in just a minute. 'What happen to her in the past, I wonder.' she then looks outside through the window, it's getting late. "Nep-Nep, do you... starting remember some things now? you get several headaches this day, so do you at least remember where you live?" Compa asked.

Neptune puts her finger on her chin, as she starts thinking. "hm, noppers, I don't even know who my parents was, where I live, why I'm getting amnesia, or why I getting unconsciousne-" It was at this point that she remembered something. " _You have merely fallen unconsciousness for days_." Neptune whispered, as she remembered the quote, and the person who spoke it.

"uh, pardon?"

" _You have merely fallen unconsciousness!_ I feel like someone has spoken those words when I was unconsciousness." she closed her eyes, then opened them a moment later. "Yes, someone was talking to me! in my dream!" she explained. "And I can tell that the person was sad, like really sad."

"In your dream? then it's not real." Compa pointed out.

Neptune shook her head. "Oh, you never know. It was so weird. I betcha someone far away was like pa-choo and send me a telephatic message, y'know?"

Compa sighed as she turned on the TV which was broadcasting a live show, showing the current state of Haneda city. "It's possible. many places especialy Planeptune, has been threatened by more and more monsters for hundreds of years." Compa explained. "The military power, and even the goddesses failed to keep them from appearing. we can only defend ourself and keep them at bay now." Compa sighed as she continued to watch the TV. "Now, Planeptune's safe zone was decreasing with each day that passing, we're losing our work, home, and even loved ones." Compa was about to cry when she mentioning those words.

On the other hand, Neptune just kept silent, as she watched Compa's tear left her eyes. "Do... do you lose someone?"

And with that, she can't hold her tears any longer, and she cried there. "I... I've lost my grandpa and my parents, Nep-Nep. I'm all alone..." she managed to say between sobs.

Neptune looked down at her hands as she remembered the flashes of memory that appeared in her mind this afternoon. 'Is there anything that I could do?' Neptune thought to herself, and then turned her head to the left, to see the wooden sword that she found this afternoon, rested against the wall, beside a ginormous syringe.

Eventually, the sun has been set, and the day has been passed with silences, as Neptune was too afraid to cause any problem to her friend.

* * *

Later that night...

In Compa's bedroom, Compa was sleeping peacefully on her bed, while letting out a soft snore.

While Neptune, on the other hand, was trying to sleep on a futon that Compa has prepared on the floor.

The purple-haired girl was still thinking about Compa's speech in the evening, and it's ringing in her head like crazy. The more and more she kept thinking about it, the more she found a weird feeling starting to appear in her heart, it was a feeling of determination, a determination to save, to help, to save the people, no, not just that, it was to _save the world_.

And before she knew it, her whole body moved itself. She springing up from her futon, and then carefully tiptoed out of the bedroom to the living room.

There, she found the wooden sword that was resting against the wall. Taking it with her, she opened the front door and walked outside, feeling the breeze of the night wind, just making her more determined to do this.

As she continued to walk to her instinct's destination. She looked back at Compa's house and sighing. "I hope she reads the note that I left on the futon."

And with all the things considered, she started running with high speed.

To be Continued...


	4. Mission

Panting, and sweating all over her body, Neptune finally reaches the destination that her instinct brings her into. It was none other than the city that was ravaged by monsters a couple of days ago, Haneda city.

Seeing how the monsters are roaming around freely on the streets of the city while looking for food, and destroyed some building to do so, brings down shivers to Neptune's spine. But she steeled her courage and nodded to herself, filled herself with determination.

Gripping her wooden sword tightly, the short purple-haired girl ran into the city, while letting out a scream. "Hey you, you monster freak! I'm gonna nep you up!" she didn't know where she got that sentence, honestly, as it was suddenly appeared in her mind.

A blue colored slime like creature who have a muzzle, ears, and tail of a dog, noticed her appearance, and quickly rushed at her by bouncing on the ground.

As the creature was right in front of her, Neptune swung her sword and slashed the creature in half, causing it to turn into a liquid of gelatin, a moment later, it dematerialized into data.

Having defeated her first monster, Neptune continued to push forward and defeated more and more monsters along the way. Even though she gets hit multiple times by stronger monsters, she didn't stop, because her determination is unbreakable.

After several minutes had passed, Neptune was panting and sweating, she slumped to her knees as fatigue caught up to her. She looked at her hands to find that the sword was broken due to her using it constantly to defeat numerous monsters, but still not enough to clear the city.

"Darn it." she cried out, as she throws her sword away, and was about to stand up, when suddenly, a giant rocky skinned spider with an insect-like humanoid who was wielding a sword growing from their back, appeared in front of her.

She was shocked to see this, and was about to run as fast as possible, when the giant creature jumped from where it was a second ago and landed right in front of her. Swinging it's sword at Neptune, Neptune barely dodged the attack by rolling to the side to retrieve her sword that was thrown away a few seconds ago, and used it to block the next attack, only to gasped in surprise, as the remains of the sword shattered into pieces by the attack.

Having nothing left to defend herself now, Neptune got hit by another incoming attack, sending her flying into a nearby wall, as her body hit the wall, a hard object hit Neptune in the head, causing the girl to lose consciousness, while the monster letting out a loud roar.

* * *

Elsewhere...

A short purple-haired girl, slowly opened her heavy eyes, and all she could see is darkness, all around her, while her body was floating in the middle of the darkness and glowing much to her surprise, something about this, makes her wonder if she has ever been in this situation before.

"It's... so dark in here... am I... dead?" she asked no one in particular. pinching her cheek, she felt pain by doing so, meaning that she was kinda still alive. "So that's mean, I'm just merely unconsciousness, right?"

_"Yes, that is, the correct answer of your condition."_

Said an unknown, mysterious voice, yet still reminds the purplenette of a certain someone.

"Hi-Histo... uh... Histy! Is that you?" the girl asked while looking around, trying to find the owner of the mysterious beautiful voice.

_"Yes, I am Histoire. This is our second meeting, Neptune."_

"Hey, Histy..." Neptune began, she closed her eyes got into a sitting position, even though she's still floating. "Can I ask you something?"

_"Before I asked, what is the thing that you wanted to ask. I do not think I'm comfortable with the name 'Histy'."_

Histoire said with a hint of embarrassment in her voice, as she said that.

"But why? It's sounded cute, ya'know."

_"..."_

The voice said nothing before it takes a deep breath and decided to surrender at the problem.

_"So, what would you like to ask me?"_

"Well..." Neptune began. "Since you know much about me, can you... can you please tell me who I am? and who am I supposed to be? or used to be?" Neptune asked, hoping to get answer about herself.

_"That's..."_

a pause.

_"That was unfortunately cannot be answered."_

"What?! why?"

_"Neptune, I know that you want to know about yourself so much. But forgive me, I can't answer your question right now when I'm locked in here, far away from you."_

"Locked away? do you mean like someone has captured you?" Neptune asked confusingly.

_"Yes, you could say it like that. But enough about that, I'm here because I wanted to help you."_

"Help me? help me for what?" Neptune asked again with confusion.

_"You were knocked unconsciousness by a monster that you couldn't defeat before you arrived in here, and the thing is, that you dare to face all of the monsters, just because of your will to protect the others from danger. But unfortunately, you're not strong enough to do that."_

The voice paused for a minute and then, Neptune's surrounding started to become warm, as it was cold in there before.

"It's starting to get warm in here, what is happening?" Neptune asked while enjoying the warmness of her surroundings.

_"This will be draining my energy, but I have yo do this, otherwise she will never save the city"_

The voice whispered quietly, quiet enough for Neptune to not hear it.

_"Go my daughter, save the people of your nation!"_

Whispered the voice again, still as quiet as before.

Suddenly, a purple light formed around Neptune, and slowly engulfing her. "What is haaaapppeeeennniiing?!" Neptune cried out as she could feel her body started to change, a moment later, she disappeared.

Letting out a sigh, Histoire smiled, even though no one could see it, as she still locked in her tome.

* * *

Back in Haneda city...

The monsters had gathered around Neptune's unconscious and helpless body, to carry her and bring her into a burning fire so they can cook her.

Just as they prepared to throw her into the fire however, Neptune's body suddenly jerked, surprised the monsters who carry her and dropped her to the ground.

A moment later, a purple light appeared and engulfed Neptune's body, causing the monsters around her to get knocked away a few meters, crashing into any nearby buildings.

When the lights faded, Neptune was no longer there. Instead a young woman was floating in there. The said woman has long purple hair in twin tails that almost reaches her feet, with bright blue eyes with white pupils in the shape of power signs, wearing black hair clips with glowing blue D-Pad shapes on them, and a black body suit that exposes the area her chest, with Both of the bodysuit's shoulder areas contain a white outlined D-pad symbol and the arm areas contain purple along the sides while the front of the bodysuit also contains purple areas near the bottom, while on the breast areas there's a single purple strip, the woman was also wearing a leg-wears that seems as though it is the same as the one that Neptune was wearing only it appears as black boots with purple tips instead.

Looking around her, while examining her surroundings, the woman widened her eyes as if she recognized the place she was in.

"Where am I?" the woman asked to no one in particular. "This was not a dream, is it?" she looked at her hand, and flexing her finggers, grimaced with how stiff her body was. "am I-"

"RRRAAAAAGGGGHHH!"

Suddenly, a giant spider like abomination attacked her from behind by using its giant stone sword.

Luckily, the woman was fast enough to react, she quickly turned around and then suddenly a black and purple colored sword materialized in her hands, using it to block the attack of the giant monster.

With a great strength, the woman then used her sword to push the monster a few feets away, creating a breathing room.

'I really don't know, whether I'm dead or alive. But if I was indeed alive by unknown circumstances, then I will use this moment to protect my nation!' the woman thought, before rushed at the monster who did the same as her.

Clashing their blades together with a loud _clang_ sound, the woman throws an attack after attack that subconstantly pushed the monster back before eventually pinning it against a wall of a building.

"Hyah!" with a slash, the woman successfully broke the monster's sword as it couldn't no longer withstand the attacks that the woman throws at it. "It's time to finish this!" the woman using her sword to point it to the monster. "Cross Combination!" rushing at the monster, the woman slashed the monster for several times with her sword, before using it to throw the monster up into the air, with the woman following after it and slashed downwards, causing the monster to get slammed back into the ground.

Letting out a last roar, the monster collapsed to the ground and get dematerialized a moment later.

With her opponent's gone, the woman turned around to face the remaining monster, only to find they're running away from her with fear, leaving the city to be saved.

Sighing, the woman stopped floating, and put herself on top of the ground before leaning against the wall, then sliding downwards, as tiredness and sleepiness plagued her.

"It's... It's so nice to be alive again... but... I'm... so... sleepy~"

Letting out a soft sigh, the woman closed her eyes and relaxed her whole body. A moment later, her body engulfed by a purple light and slowly her body changed into a small girl with short spiky purple hair, known as Neptune. As Neptune continued to sleep, a small ball of purple light coming out from her chest, and then the light goes into the sky, leaving her in that position

* * *

As the sun rise in the east of Gamindustri. Compa letting out a yawn with her left hand covering her mouth, while her right hand rubbing her eyes. "Hm, what time is it?" she asked while trying to reach her alarm clock that was at her bedside. "Seven o'clock?" she said as she looked at it.

Springing up from her bed she turned her head to the left to greet a certain purple-haired girl that supposed to be sleeping on a futon, beside her bed. But she wasn't there, only the futon does.

"Nep-Nep?" Compa called out. "Where are you?" she then goes to search around the house for her new friend, but find her nowhere to be seen. That is, before she noticed a note on top of the futon, she reads it.

_"Compa, this is me, Neptune, or as you call it, Nep Nep. I'm writing this letter right here just to apologize for leaving in the middle of the night, where you're still sleeping. I just can't sleep when your words from yesterday's afternoon keeps echoing in my head, so I was thinking, maybe I can do something about it, I know it's a pretty crazy idea, but i've made up my mind, I'm heading to Haneda city, and whether or not if I'm come back alive, I apologize for doing this. Sincerely, Neptune."_

It took several minutes for Compa to process the information, and when she does, she quickly dropped the letter and grabbed the phone to make a call.

_"Hello, can I help you?"_ a voice from the other side of the phone asked.

"Doctor, please!" Compa was crying at this point. "Please send a special forces or anything to Haneda city! my friend was in there, and I need your help!" Compa said while still crying.

_"Uh, pardon? did you just say, your friend was in Haneda city, and we need to send a special forces to save her?"_

"Yes, that's what I want."

_"Compa, I know that you're the type of girl that was honest, but I need an explanation here, can you please explain it to me in details?"_

"Uh huh!" Compa nodded and proceed to explain the situation.

* * *

Somewhere else in Planeptune's unknown location...

Sitting on a throne made with polished stone, a black figure who was watching as the monsters in front of her was bowing and praise her with unknown language that only the figure and the monsters that could understand. raises an eyebrow as the big door on the other side of the room opened, letting in a group of monster that was supposed to be in Haneda city, wreaking havoc.

letting out a sigh, the black figure stand up while glaring at the group. "Report!" the figure commanded.

As the figure listened to the story the group has to offer, the figure was shocked to hear it.

"Impossible! That's impossible! do you make up that story just to scare me?" the monsters shook their heads. "There is no way, there is no way she could come back alive, SHE'S DEAD and will always be dead!" furious, the figure kicked the throne, so hard that it leaves a crack on the surface.

"Except..." the figure muttered before quickly disappeared in a flash of light.

* * *

_"Neptune."_

A voice said that name, in the distances.

_"Neptune._ "

It said that again, but this time it sounds a little bit closer.

_"Neptune!"_

Snapping her eyes open as that voice was heard right in her ears, Neptune found herself inside the same place that she was in before, and before after that.

_"Neptune, can you hear me? This is Histoire."_

"It's... Histy! why did I always end up in here when I'm speaking with you?" Neptune asked curiously, before remembered something. "Oh, and what did you do to me before? It feels so weird when that purple light getting inside me, it was like that someone else is entering me..."

_"Neptune, please forgive me, but I can't answer your question right now. My time for talking to you is very limited, and I need you to listen to me carefully."_

Neptune was about to say something when Histoire can't answer her question again, but seeing with how serious Histoire sounded, she decided not to do it.

_"I'll start from the basic._ _Do you remember the monster that knocks you unconscious? That was the Planeptune's Key fragment guardian. Key fragment is an important item needed to release me from my seal."_

"Release you from your seal? I remember that you said you were locked away in our last conversation right? where are you anyway?" Neptune asked.

_"I am uncertain. She has locked me away somewhere in this world. Only the key fragments that could release me from the seal so please, please... release this seal and save me!"_

"So if I do this fetch quest, I can save you right? Where are they?"

_"Unfortunately, I have little information on that. I only know there is one in each landmass. You have collected one already by defeating that monster."_

"Defeating? When did I do that? I can't remember." Neptune muttered, tapping her chin.

_"Each piece is guarded by a strong adversary. Find the fragments by defeating these foes."_

"So, I get that I haffta save you, but do you promise to explain everything to me after I save you?" Neptune asked with full hope.

_"Of course_ , _by saving me, you're not only will receive the truth about yourself, but also saving countless of life all across the world, isn't that what you always wanted?"_

Silence fills the room as Histoire said that. "Yeah, that was my wish, huh?" Neptune closed her eyes. "My wish is to save and help everyone in need. Even though I didn't know who or what they're."

_"My time is up. Please be careful, Neptune. I will not contact you any further in the future, until the time when you collected all of the fragments. Good luck."_

The voice is gone, leaving Neptune behind all alone.

Sighing, Neptune closed her eyes as they felt heavy for her to keep them open. "Is this really what I wanted?"

* * *

Somewhere else in Planeptune...

"Histoire? Histoire?! did you truly scheming behind me all this time?"

A black figure entered a dim room that was only illuminated by several glowing marks on the walls and ceiling, in the center of the room, there was an altar that has a book resting on top of it, the cover of the book was pretty, with a big green gem on the center of it.

"How dare you. All this even after sealing you away? Tell me what did you did to bring _her_ back this very instant!" the figure said while glaring daggers at the book.

"...I do not posses enough power to even call out someone in Celestia for help. You should be aware of that the most." A voice coming out from the book said. "She was long gone, she was died hundreds of years ago, just like you said to me in the past."

"Liar!" the figure shouted. "There is no way that my army of monsters would dare lying to me."

"Believe everything that they said and it will only confuse you more, I am the world's everything, and the world is my everything, there is nothing that I didn't know, and I'm telling you that she was long gone."

"Tch, you may have a point, there is no use for me to keep talking to you when I know you as the most difficult variable to control of all." the figure then turned around and walked away.

"Just so you know, I'll find that little brat and confront her myself, and if I have to, I may have to kill her, again. Muahahahahahahaha!"

With the figure's gone, the book letting out a sigh. "Neptune, please be careful with her, I could only hope that you're okay."

Silence filled the room.

To be Continued...


	5. Find the Fragment

As consciousness slowly came back to her, A certain short purple-haired girl, slowly opened her eyes, she was then greeted by an almost familiar ceiling. Reaching up, she rubbed her eyes before trying to sit up, only to find herself couldn't do it, as there was something or to be exact someone, using her stomach as a body pillow.

On the said someone was a pink congo colored hair, which the purplenette quickly recognized as Compa, her friend.

Seeing how the girl slept peacefully, the purplenette try her best to not wake her up, and instead looking at her hand, as the memory of last night conversation filled her mind.

_"Of course, b_ _y saving me, you're not only will receive the truth about yourself, but also saving countless of life all across the world, isn't that what you always wanted?"_

Shaking her head, Neptune was about to get out of the bed, when Compa was twitching, and slowly waking up. Letting out a yawn with her left hand cover her mouth, and her right hand rubbing her eyes.

She then looked up, to see Neptune was looking at her. "Oh, Nep Nep, you're awake... good morning." and then a moment later, she jerked in surprise as she realizes what did she just said. "YOU'RE AWAKE!" Compa shouted and lunge herself at Neptune, tackling her in a hug.

"He-hey! Compa! stop it! my body is still- owww... hurt!" Neptune cried out in pain.

"Silly Nep Nep! why did you do that? why do you go there, alone by yourself? you're making me worried!" Compa said, As she sobs on her friend's shoulder.

Neptune then patted her friend's back while returning the hug. "I'm so sorry, okay? I promise to not do that again." Neptune said.

they then broke the hug, and Compa was staring at Neptune with curiosity.

"By the way, Nep Nep, can I ask you something?"

"Sure, what is it?"

"What happened back in Haneda city last night?" Compa asked, sighing at the looks of confusion on Neptune's face. "As soon as I found your note this morning, I've requested the military to make a special team to save you from monsters in there. But when we arrived there, there were no signs of any monsters left, the city was empty and the only thing that we could find is you in there. What happened to the monsters? Do you really kill all of them?"

Neptune closed her eyes, trying to collect her thoughts.

"It's... it's really complicated." Neptune said. "But," she opened her eyes. "I'll tell you what happen in our way to there. Let's go there if you're ready."

Getting out of the bed Neptune then walked through the front door and stopped briefly outside of Compa's house, just to get some fresh noon's air.

"Nep Nep... can you please at least tell me what's going on that night?" Compa pleaded, hoping to get some answers.

"I will tell you Compa, I promise. But not now, I need to go back to Haneda city to retrieve a certain item." Neptune said, while looking at her friend.

"A certain item?"

"Yeppers, it was like those kind of legendary class item in RPGs games that was required to finish up the stories, you know?" she giggled when she saw the looks of confusion on Compa's face. "Well, don't worry about it. For now, let's get prepared."

* * *

A few minutes later, Neptune and Compa was on their way to Haneda city, which was now under investigation of monsters sudden disappearance that only happen in one night.

While they're walking, Neptune explains everything, _everything_ that happened to her last night. For example, like the detailed reason of why she recklessly leaves the house and headed to Haneda City, what happened to the monsters, and finally about her new mission, break the seal of Histoire.

"I see, so this mysterious person that you called Histy, knows a lot about you?" Neptune nodded. "And that she was locked away somewhere and needs your help, right?" Neptune nodded again. "And to do so, you need to find and collect four items called the Key Fragments, in order to break the seal?"

"That's right, I need to find them in order to free Histy, and then she will explain everything that I need to know." Neptune said with excitement.

"But Nep Nep, it would be a very dangerous journey, if the monsters in Planeptune were bad enough, then what about the other landmasses?" Compa asked worriedly. "And how will you find them? This is irrational, dangerous, and absolutely impossible!"

"But Compa, this journey is important, I remembered that Histy once said that by breaking the seal, then I would save countless of lives all across the world! and you know yourself that it was my biggest dream to save everyone that needs help. I wanted to save people, I wanted to save the world, and I will not turn back now."

The two continue their walk in silence, several minutes later, Haneda city was visible in distance.

"Then..." Compa began, breaking the silence. "I shall join your journey then, Nep Nep!"

Neptune then turned to looked at her companion in shock. "What?"

"I said, I shall join you in your journey." Compa giving her a reassuring smile. "My grandpa once said 'Strike while the iron's hot'. I'm a nurse, so I wanted to save people." Compa looked at Neptune in the eye. "So, why I would save the injured, but not those who being threatened by monster?" Compa then throw her fist in the air. "Nep-Nep, I'm not the strongest, but I'll help. Two is better than one!"

"You will? Don'tcha have nurse's errands? You're not in the middle of summer vacation or anything, right?" Neptune confusingly asked.

"Right, but... this landmass's population has been declining due to monsters eating them and people stoped believed in lady Purple Heart, and leave the landmass to seek the other goddesses protection." Compa said in a sad tone. "It makes me very sad you know, seeing how the city becomes emptier and emptier with each day passing."

"I'm... I'm sorry." Neptune didn't know what else to say to that.

"Don't worry, it's not your fault nor lady Purple Heart's fault for leaving us to suffer."

"So you still put your faith in her? Despite the fact that she's been gone for hundreds of years?" Neptune was shocked for some reason when hearing this.

"My grandpa was the eternal believer of her, so of course I would believe in her too." Compa then smiled at Neptune. "So, can I join in your journey to save the world?"

Neptune smiled back. "Of course." she then looked at the approaching Haneda city. "But for now, let's find the key fragments first." the two then proceed to enter the city.

* * *

When they enter the city, they were greeted with a bunch of polices, military, and some normal people roaming around the city, with the normal people are busy taking everything that belongs to them that was left in here when they run away, the polices are investigating the area regarding of what happened here last night, with the military guarding them in case if there would be another monster attack.

"It sure is crowded out here." Neptune muttered as she walked around the busy streets of Haneda city.

"This is going to be difficult! Nep-Nep, what are we going to do?" Compa asked while looking around for shiny items on the streets.

"It will take a long time if we're looking at it together, let's split up and see if one of us can find it around here, I'll meet you again at that park." Neptune said while pointing at the nearest park.

"Okay, see what I can do." Compa nodded before walking away.

"Is it possible if someone else has found it, then take it?" Neptune muttered softly as she walked across the crowd. "Maybe I should ask a few people, see if they know something. Hmm... maybe that guy over there could be a start." Neptune approached a guy who was wearing a pair of white suit and pants, then poked the person's back for a couple of times. "Hey, um... excuse me?"

The person then turned around to reveal a man with brown coloured hair and wears a pair of glasses in her eyes.

"My my, such an adorable little girl that we have here, do you need something from me?" The man kindly asked.

"Really? I-I mean... daww~ you're making me blush right there, hehehe~" Neptune put her hands on her reddening cheeks while giggling shyly. "Well, um, I was just wondering... but do you ever see something strange lying around here?" Neptune scratched the back of her head at the confused look that she got. "Okay, you see, I was tasked by someone to collect a certain special item, an item that was so much important for both of us, the item was small, almost like puzzle shaped, and it was glowing, so if by any chance you've seem it, can I know where it is? please?"

The man then rubbed his chin while thinking. "A small item, puzzle shaped, and glowing huh?" a moment later, his eyes widened. "Ah, so you mean that one?"

"What? What is it?"

"Well, to be honest with you, me and a couple of people from the capital city came here last night. When other people came to rescue a certain girl, I was tasked to investigate the area, see if the monsters are really leaving this city." letting out a soft sigh while adjusting his glasses, the man continues. "And that is, when I saw the thing that could possibly the one that you're looking for."

"You did? Tell me, tell me, please!"

"I found it in the east side of the city, in the location where the rescue team found the said girl that needs a rescue. I was wondering why people just ignore it rather than take it, so I decided to take it for myself."

"So you have it, then?! Can you please give it to me? It means a lot for me." Neptune pleaded while looking at the man with puppy eyes.

But the man just sighed. "That's not the end of my dialogue. When I decided to pick it, another person picked it up before me, the said person was wearing a robe that covers her entire body, except for the lower parts of her face. And before I could even ask, that person already running away with high speed towards east."

"Awww, danggit! Why did this have to be difficult?" Neptune groaned while slumping to her knees in despair.

"Well... that is all I have as an answer. Any more question?"

"I guess it can't be helped, huh?" Standing up and dusted off her dress, Neptune shook her head. "No, that is all that I wanted to ask you, thank you for the answer though, it means a lot."

"No problem."

Neptune looked behind her to see that Compa is already waiting for her in the park. "Well, my friend is waiting for me, thanks bunches, Mr. Nice Guy, bye!" Neptune said while waving and running at the same time.

The man waved back at her, but his focus was directed to a certain name that was on the backside of the girl's hoodie.

"Neptune..." the man smiled. "It really is happening, huh?"

* * *

"I can't find it anywhere, Nep-Nep, and everybody that I asked said that they did not see the item we're looking for." Compa letting out a sigh before looked at Neptune. "Do you find it?"

Neptune shook her head. "Nope, I did not find it. But," Neptune gives Compa a serious look. "I do know that the item was stolen by a pretty mysterious person who might know about Histy or something."

Compa tilted her head in confusion. "A mysterious person? What do you mean?"

"Well, I met with this guy earlier, and he claimed to saw the Key Fragment we were looking for, he said that no one picked it up except for this one person who dressed in a robe that covers their entire body, except the area of their mouth." Neptune explained.

"A person who was dressed in a robe that covers their entire body? I've never seen such a person like that around, how do we gonna find it?"

"But, the man at least telling me that the mysterious person headed to the east from this city. So you have any idea what was there?" Neptune asked curiously.

"East? But there was nothing there except for monsters lair! why would a person go to such a dangerous place like that?" Compa said in disbelief.

"Then, there is only one logical answer for that." Neptune said as she stands up from where she sat earlier. "If there is a monsters lair in the east, and there's nobody go there, then that means the mysterious person we're looking for is none other than boss of that generating these monsters! Ya'know?"

Compa sighed and just smiled awkwardly. "You may be right about a boss, but nobody has been or heard anything like that."

"Now then, let's go back to the central city, I'm very hungry, and I also need to go to some weapons shop, because I need something to fight, since I've lost that wooden sword last night." Neptune said while rubbing her stomach that was growling

"And that's why I keep reminding you about the important of breakfast, Nep-Nep." Compa said, as the two of them walked back to the central city for breakfast, and shopping.

"Yeah, I will never forget that." Neptune nodded while smiling brightly.

To be Continued...


	6. Somethings Iffy

"Here it is, one of Planeptune's many monsters nest, Evil Cave." Compa said as she looked down at the map in her hand, who was showing the name of the cave that she and her friend, Neptune, about to enter.

"Evil Cave? Sounds like a generic name for a basic dangerous cave though." Neptune commented.

Neptune was now carrying a sword that was using a laser beam as it's blade, and also a black coloured handgun with it's trigger, slide lock, and ejection port in gold coloured, two purple nails and a scorpion mark on the grip, with her name carved on the slide along with two symbols that looked like her hairclips in each side.

The two of them proceed to enter the cave, but they didn't know that a mysterious figure was watching over them from behind.

* * *

The cave they entered was big, it's layers were made out of black stone, with several glowing crystal that emanating gentle purple coloured light, the cave was dim, but enough to see everything inside it.

"Hello? Anyone here?" Neptune said, her voice echoing inside the cave.

"Nep-Nep, I think it might be not a good idea to do that, you might attract some unwanted attention to you." Compa said in a low voice.

"But isn't that what we were here for? to defeat monsters and find that mysterious thief?" Neptune replied while looking around for monsters to defeat.

"But you will never know what kind of monsters that will attack you, Nep-Nep." Compa replied along with a soft, "Well, put that aside, let's go deeper, we might found them in there."

Neptune nodded and the two of them ventured deeper into the cave.

While the figure still tailing them, without them knowing.

* * *

"Ha!" Neptune yelled as she swung her sword at the monster that was in front of her, a big humanoid creature with green colored skin, one big green eye on the middle of it's head, a long purple hair, wearing a brown chestplate and gauntlets, and wield a giant stone club.

The monster who was identified as Jaki, according to Compa, uses it's club to pair the attack, before spinning it around then clashed it with Neptune's sword, making it blown away and disarming the the girl.

"Gosh, danggit!" athletically, Neptune rolled to the side when the Jaki tried to hit her with it's club, before drawing her handgun and fired several shots at the monster, while the monster uses it's hands to protect itself from the projectiles, Neptune quickly got into her sword and take it, before rushing at the monster with a yell.

The Jaki readied itself and swung it's club at Neptune, but when the club was about to hit the short girl, Neptune quickly ducked down and slashed at the monster's lower body, while sliding through between it's legs.

As she stands up, the monster collapse before get dematerialized. Turning her attention to Compa, she saw that her friend was being surrounded by several bat-like creatures with one big orange eye in the middle.

"Gah! Go away! It's not fair to attack one person with a group!" Compa cried out, as she get hits by them on several places.

Sighing, Neptune pulled out her handgun and switched the normal bullets into a special fire elemented bullets called fire bullets.

"Gotta aim for the head!" Neptune muttered before firing at the Imps, with each bullets directly hit them on the center of their eyes.

After all of them are killed, Neptune smiled before putting her mouth on the tip of her hand gun and blow it, then put it in her pocket.

"That was amazing, Nep-Nep! I didn't know you were pretty good at aiming." Compa said in an amazed tone.

"Well... I always practice it every-" Suddenly, a flash of memory entered her mind, making her grunted and flinched in pain. "That was..."

"Nep-Nep? Are you... okay?" Compa asked in concern.

After a several moments, the pain finally gone. Letting out a sigh, she nodded. "Yeah, it's just... a sudden headache."

"Could it be because of maybe your memory were resurfacing?" Compa guessed in which Neptune shook her head.

"I... don't know." Neptune said while scratched the back of her head. 'It's that girl again... but this time, shes's playing with a toy gun.' Neptune thought to herself.

"Can you still continue?" Compa asked, concerned about her friend's healt.

"Yeah, let's go." She replied with a nod, and the two continued to go deeper.

Several minutes later, the two of them reached a room which was more bigger than any other rooms in the cave, it was wide, with none of the purple crystals filled the center, and only on the rear.

"Bad guys hole up in caves, but I wonder if it's kinda where they do the thing and make babies. Sorry to intrude..." Neptune muttered loudly, as she entered the room.

Since there's no glowing crystals grows in the center of the room, the room was dark and they could barely see anything.

Neptune looked at Compa who was behind her, and said. "Compa, it's dark, so watch your step. You never know when you'll h-aghh!" but before she could finish it, she was cut out when something hit her and made her fall into her butt.

"Nep-Nep? Are you okay? You should be careful too, or you might fall into some spikes and the story will over..." Compa then offered her hand helped Neptune to get back into her feet.

"No, I ran into something. Wait, no again, something ran into me." Neptune said as she stands up, then looked in front of her to see what was the thing that ran into her.

"Ow... whatch it girl. This isn't the place for kindergarteners to have recess!" turns out, it was a fair-skinned girl with a short physique, with pale brown hair that reaches down near her waist, a sharp green eyes, a green coloured ribbon on the left side of her head, wears a loose, large, blue coat with silver buttons and trimming that is worn open and looks like it's many sizes too large for her to wear, with the sleeves reaches through her hands. From the shoulder to the elbow level of the sleeves is an orange lightning bolt with white trimming. On each side of the bottom of the sleeves are buttoned-on black cuffs with silver trimming. Her coat also has two pockets on each side of the waist.

The lower end of her coat has a brown fur lining, with a loose belt strap that holds holders are attached to the waistline of her coat, each holders have different collors which was blue, light blue, green, black, magenta, white, lime green, orange, and light pink. Beneath the open coat, she wears a tank top and a pair of shorts that are black with silver trimming. She also wears a black belt with silver trimming and is adorned with a black and silver, diamond-shaped buckle with a word "IF" engraved on it. On her legs, she wears medium-length black socks and blue boots with silver trimming that matches her coat.

"Kindergarteners? Look who's talking. Who're you? Do you live in this icky cave?" Neptune asked as she looked at the brunette in front of her, who was busy collecting her stuff that scattered around the floor beacuse of the crash.

"Do I look like a ragged bum to you?" the girl replied while giving Neptune an annoyed look. After she collected all of her stuff, she stands up and dusted off her coat. "I'm IF. I'm here to eliminated the monster as requested by the guild." she then looked at the two person in front of her. "Who're YOU?"

"We are here because of people in danger. So, we're here for the same reason. My name is Neptune and this is Compa. Nice to meet you." Neptune said while giving her hand.

"H-hello, I enjoy arts and crafts, and I'm good at math. I know I don't look it, but it was something I'm quite proud of."

"Right, nice to meet you too." IF said while took Neptune's hand and shook it.

"Anyway, why not help us conquer this dungeon? If we work together, I'm sure it will take no time for us to do it." Neptune said while retieving her hand.

IF glanced at the two in front of her before sighing. "Well, I guess the more help I get, the easier it'll be for me. Fine, we'll team up, but know that you're joining me!"

"Oh, you'll do it? I'm glad I asked." Neptune said in a cheerful tone before turned to looked at Compa. "Compa, Iffy said she'll join our party!"

Twitching, IF crossed her arms and give Neptune an annoyed look. "Whatever. Don't call me Iffy. That's not my name."

Compa giggled. "Now we really look like a party! We'll be together forever. It's our pleasure to have you with us."

IF titled her head in confusion as she heard that last sentence. "Forever? No. Just for now. This dungeon."

Neptune then turned to face IF while glaring sharply at her. "We're already a party, so you can't get away from us, even if you try." She said seriously. "Abandoning your party is against the rule of this world. Right? Compa?" She asked while turned her head to looked at Compa who was nodded. "You got that? Missy?"

"U-um, no, but... it doesn't matter." IF said while backing away a little bit.

"Haaaah ha ha ha! I've found you, Neptune." Suddenly a mysterious voice spoke up.

The girls quickly tensed up and gather around to inspect their surrounding to find the owner of the mysterious voice.

"Who's there?" Neptune yelled. "And what's with that melodramatic laugh...?" She trailed off when a person emerged from the shadows of the dark cave.

"Don't mock my snickering! pushing people's buttons..." The person was an old lady with a witch-like appearance. She has a very pale skin, almost appearing to be a pale light purple. Her hair is light shade of purple, being styled in a short haircut with one long bang to the side. Her apparel consists of a black witch hat with thorns circling it with two different shaded purple flowers on them, and feathers sticking off to the side. With Her outfit is a black one piece with purple stripes along the cuffs and torso area. "You haven't change a bit I see."

"Wait, you knew Nep-Nep? Is this a friend of yours?" Compa asked Neptune curiously.

Neptune shook her head. "Of course not. I don't know any old lady wearing this much goth makeup."

"That's good to hear. I was about to doubt your choice of people." Compa said while letting out a sigh of relief.

"Yeah. If you were friends with her, I would've put in my resignation." IF said while nodded.

"How dare you! Saying what you want in front of me!" the lady shook her head. "I'm here to do the things that should've done hundreds of years ago." the old lady said quiety.

"What the heck is she saying?" IF muttered in confusion.

"To think that you could escape from the jaws of death. Looks like I've been underestimated you, Neptune." She put her hand in her side, then, came out from nowhere, A spear with three white giant blades materialized in her hands. "But it doesn't matter now, I could kill you again, this day, this time, brace yourself!"

Much to everyone surprise, the lady was then floating above the ground.

"What the heck is this ladyeeeaah!" Neptune was cut short when the old lady suddenly fly at high speed at her and tries to stab Neptune by using her spear. Fortunately, Neptune was quick enough to pair the attack with her sword.

"Nice reflex, I give you that." the old lady said before leaned back to avoid an attack from Compa's giant syringe.

Using this opportunity, Neptune backed away from the lady and to the side of IF and Compa.

"Watch out you guys, this lady is stronger than she looks." Neptune said to her companions.

"I know, but do you have a plan to defeat her?" IF asked and Neptune shook her head. "I thought so."

The three rushed at the lady, and each of them held their respective weapons tightly to make sure it's not slipped off of their hands.

The old lady only ginned at the three, she held her spear to her side, and the three blades starts to spin.

Neptune swung her sword, aiming the lady's torso, but the attack got blocked by her spear, she retrieve her sword and began clashing with the lady's spear, each strike were parried.

IF come from the side and tried to use her katars to attack the lady from the side, but the lady notice this and fly upwards to dodge it, but only to get shot by Compa's syringe ranged attack, sending the lady a few meters away.

Just as the lady landed on the ground, Neptune and IF already charged at her, swinging their weapons at the lady, who quickly parried their strike with her spear.

"Hyah!" Neptune shouted as she swung upwards and successfully disarmed the lady.

"Ha!" And before the lady could react, IF already swung her katars, and sliced the lady right on her abdomen.

"Kuh!" the lady grunted as she held her stomach while backed away to retrieve her spear.

"Hey, that wasn't so bad. She was weaker than I expected." Neptune said while brushing her forehead.

"Heh... hehheh... hahahaha..." the lady suddenly laughed hard.

"What is wrong with this lady? She just started laughing all of a sudden." IF muttered softly, while the party was gathered behind her.

"What's wrong Neptune? Why don't you use your power that you were so proud of?" the lady asked.

"Power?" Neptune said while looking at the lady in confusion. "What power? What are you talking about? I don't understand."

"Tch, Fine, just keep pretending, not like I care about it or anything, since I'm gonna use it for myself."

The lady pulled her left hand that was covering her abdoment, revealing that it was healed from earlier attacks.

"W-what the Nep!? When did she heal that? I don't even see she was healing herself." Neptune said in shock.

"Don't tell me that you actually believed that it was the only thing I'm capable of, I'm not even use any of power earlier. But now, I will use it."

In a flash, the lady was in front of them, with her right hand gripped at her spear tightly.

"Ex Impulsive!" By merely swung her spear upwards, her spear created a powerful blast that sends the girls a couple of meters back, with each of them crashed into walls.

"Ugh." Neptune grunted in pain as she tried to stands up to no avail. "This lady is too strong for an early boss. This is cheating!"

"Tch... we can't judge a book, by only looking at it's cover." IF muttered while trying to stands up aswell.

"Hmph, you're all scum to me. Go ahead, cry and weep like the losers you are." the lady said while slowly stalking towards Neptune.

"At least before I died, tell me who you are and what do you know about me!" Neptune said while looking at the lady that was walking towards her.

"Silence!" the lady yelled while swung her hand towards Neptune's cheek to slapped her, so hard that Neptune fell to the ground again.

"Nep-Nep!"

"Nep!"

"Now then, your power." the lady said while grabbed Neptune by the collar and pulled her up. "Give me your power, Neptune!" the lady then put her other hand on Neptune's chest, and a dim purple light was glowing on her hand.

"W-what are... you doing...?" Neptune asked weakly, for some reason she started to feel exhausted and sleepy when the lady made contact with her.

"Hahahaha! Finally! The third step of my ambition has finally-" The lady was cut short when she felt something wrong happen.

The lady's body start shaking, and then suddenly, she stops floating, and dropped Neptune as she landed on the ground.

"What is this? What happened? My power was gone! How could this be?" She said while looking down at her hands that lost it's power, she then looked up and glared at Neptune. "What the hell have you done to me?"

Before she could get an answer however, she got shot by IF's handgun, right at her right shoulder.

"Nep, get out of there!" IF yelled while shooting several bullets at the lady.

While Neptune stands up and get out of there, the lady tried her best to dodge or parry the bullets that IF been shot at her. But unfortunately, the injuries on her shoulders, made it difficult for her to do so.

After getting shot for several times, the lady finally fell into the ground, panting and grunting in pain.

"Her injuries doesn't heal itself like last time. What is with this lady." IF muttered before looking behind her to find Compa along with Neptune who was using her as support, walking towards her. "Are you girls okay?"

"I'm okay, but Nep-Nep is not okay though." Compa said.

"Hay, look!" Neptune said while pointing at the lady.

The lady was now standing although barely, she gave Neptune a demanding look. "How did you do that, Neptune? With my power, I should have the ability to copy or even take all of your power for myself." with her spear in hand, she use it to help her to stand. "But how did you do this? how did you make your powers unable to be copied by me, or even take it? And more importantly, what did you do to make me unable to acsess my own power?"

Neptune gritted her teeth and glared at the lady. "How many times I need to tell you? I don't understand about this "My power, your power" thinggy, you just make me confused!"

Twitched the lady then letting out a sigh. "You may escape from me this time, but it won't be like this next time. Don't forget my words." the lady said before limping away, as fast as she could.

"She's gone, finally." Compa said while slumping down to her knees.

"She was tough, but we manage to defeat her somehow." IF muttered.

"We're not even find the Key Fragment, and we're already get beated up badly." Compa groaned in dismay.

"Says who?"

The two of them turned to see Neptune holding a glowing object, the object was almost puzzle shaped, with a rope attached to it.

"What is that?" IF said said curiously, while leaned forward to examined it closely.

While Compa gasped in surprise. "Is that the Key Fragment that we were looking for?"

Neptune nodded. "That's right, I saw this hanging around that lady's waist. So when Iffy was telling me to get away from her, while she was busy dodging the bullets, I use that opportunity to take it, while she's not looking." Neptune explained with a smile.

"Wow, that was so smart of you, Nep-Nep!"

"Hehehe, thanks, Compa." Neptune said while scratched the back of her head. "With this, there's only three left to find, and we will be able to free Histy."

"Um," Neptune and Compa then turned to see IF looking at them in confusion. "Okay, I know that I was so new to the group, but can you tell me what was this or who is this Histy person was?"

"Oh, well it was a long story, but I will tell you after we get out of here, okay?" IF nodded and Neptune smiled. "Good, now then," by connecting the two ends of the rope, Neptune made the Key Fragment in the form of a necklaces, before slipping it through her head. "Let's get out of this dungeon!"

With that, the party headed towards the exit.

To be Continued...


	7. Into Lastation

Once the party get out of the cave, and now out in the open.

Neptune and Compa proceed to explain everything about their mission to save the mysterious person Histoire that was sealed somewhere in an unknown location, and also saving the world in the process.

"So basically, you're both looking for Key Fragments for this... Histy person." IF said, and Neptune confirmed it by nodded rapidly.

"Ding-Dong! Histy's sealed away somewhere in this world. She's like one of those secret optional characters."

"The different fragments are guarded by monsters. So, the source is really whoever ordered the fragments to be guarded." IF muttered while closing her eyes and thinking. "That Histy character must have something to do with it, too. Saving the world, hmm? It could be a big fib."

Surprised, Neptune looked at IF with sparkling eyes. "Ooh, Iffy, you're beyond keen. How can you possibly be so observant in such a tender, young age?"

IF twitched at the comment, and looked away. "Tch, it's a simple logic. If this is all true however, leaving it to you two... will spell doom to humanity." Sighed, she turned around to look at her two friends and nodded while smiling. "No choice! I'll help. You're traveling, right? You'll need someone with you who's been to a lot of different lands."

IF letting out another sigh, and shook her head, as her companions all cheered in joy.

"About those fragments... If they're guarded by monsters, it might be pretty easy to find them after all." IF said while crossing her arms.

"Really? Then, I'm sure we'll save Histy in no time." Compa said while smiling brightly.

Turning around, IF headed back to Planeptune's central city, while Neptune and Compa followed behind her.

Reaching out to one of the holster behind her, IF pulled out a pink colored phone, and turned it on.

"Basilicoms around the world, except for Planeptune, have been researching monsters. I think they'll have a good idea where they spawned." She said while looking at her phone.

Tilting her head in confusion, Neptune ran up and get in front of IF while walking backwards. "Uh, I'm sorry, but, what is a Basilicom?" Neptune asked with curiosity, then smiled nervously when IF giving her a combination of an annoyed, surprised, and confused look. "I'm apparently an amnesiac, so I need you to explain stuff to me in manner. Convinent for the readers to understand!" she explained.

Compa also ran up and got beside IF. "Be patient, miss IF. She was one of the victim of Haneda city incident, a couple of days ago. We found her stuck on the ground, with a fatal injury on her head, and she lost her memory because of that. Sorry for my delayed information." Compa explained.

IF looked at her, then at Neptune who was still in front of her, walking backwards, and nodded in understandment.

"Basilicom are holy organizations run by those who serve the goddess." Compa began. "There are two parts to a Basilicom: The Sanctuary where the goddess are cared for. And parliament for political activities."

Getting an idea, IF brings her hand up to stop Compa. "Stop. Why not let the people at the Basilicom explain it? We are heading there anyway."

Tilted her head in confusion Compa proceed to ask. "For what? To ask about monsters? But we don't need to do that until we go to another landmass."

Sighing, she replied. "Well, we'll need a permit from the Basilicom to travel anywhere. They manage the Sky Harbors, too, you know?" she asked and Compa nodded in understandment.

"Oh, I see. Then we'll continue this when we reach the Basilicom. okay, Nep-Nep?

* * *

Several minutes later, the girls was now in front of the Plneptune's Basilicom.

The Basilicom was grand-looking, with a long polygon shape building, two pillars in each side of the entrance, and the primary color of the outside is white with gold stripes, and blue colored roof.

"Whoa! This is a Basilicom? It's so big and towering and pretty and stuff! But where is everyone?" Neptune said excitedly as she walking around on the entrance of the giant building.

"Hiding from monsters, obviously." IF said, not even bother to look at Neptune as she was busy with her phone. "CPU Purple Heart has passed away, hundreds of years ago in the ancient battle of Console Wars. And without her, Planeptune doesn't have any kind of divine protection that keeps the people save from any kind of threats. And that's why people chose to migrate to the other landmasses to seek protection. Unless for some people that still believes in Purple Heart, they chose to stay in here and keep their faith to the goddess of purple." IF explained with a serious look.

"Hmm, I don't get it, why does these people still believes in her despite of knowing that their faith is useless?" Neptune asked with curiosity.

"Well, sometimes if you have a full faith on someone, it was hard for you to move on despite of the truth that were real." IF said, finally closed her phone. "Anyway, go talk to the Basilicom's staff, they'll communicate with a different one and we'll be on our way." IF said while giving Neptune a small smile.

"Okay, then I'll be back in a jiffy!" She said while returning the smile.

"I'll wait here to keep Compa company. Ask them anything you want while you have a chance."

Neptune nodded run into the door of the entrance and entered the Basilicom, while Compa and IF having a talk.

* * *

Entering the Basilicom, Neptune's eyes widened in amazement as she looked around the inside of the Basilicom.

Just like from the outside, the inside was huge, with it's interior consist of white and gold colored foundation, multiples bench in the left and right side of the building, with many purple stained glass on each side of the walls, and finally, there's a long red carpet leading into an altar at the end of the room.

There's only a few people in there, some civilians and and a few Basilicom's staff.

After walking around the room, Neptune founded a counter with a man dressed in white Basilicom uniform, with purple trimmings, and Planeptune's logo in it, sitting behind the table. Noticing Neptune's presence, he quickly turned around to face her.

"Excuse me, I wanna go to other landmasses! Is that okay?" Neptune asked the man cheerfully.

"Ah, hello. Applying for Terraportation? Could you give us your reason and how long you will be traveling for?" The man kindly asked, but for some reason, Neptune felt that she had heard his voice somewhere before, but she decided to shrugged it off.

"How long? I dunno. Reason... um, to defeat monsters! I wanna travel the world and fight bad guys!" Neptune energetically said with a smile.

"Admirable for one so young." he commented before pulling out a book and a pen. Opening the book, he write a few things in there. "Okay, so... long-term... salvage areas attacked by monsters. There." He looked up to looked at Neptune. "Or shall I word it in a more vague way? Volunteer work? That'd look better on your resume."

Giving the man an annoyed look, Neptune said. "I don't care, whatever. Hurry it up, my party is waiting for me."

"Oh, you have some friends with you, hmm? Could you write their names here?" The man asked while giving Neptune the book and the pen which Neptune used it to write her and her friend's name. "That's it. Thank you very much. Bye."

Before he could turned around to walk away, Neptune remembered something important.

"W-wait!" Neptune said as tugged the man's sleeve to stop him from turning. "This is my first time doing this, so I dunno anything about the Basilicom. Can you tell me about it, please?" she said while giving a pleading look.

Sighed and smiled softly, he replied. "A Basilicom novice, eh? Let me tell you a bit about our origins and give a small history lesson.

"Long time ago, Basilicoms were created by CPUs, Console Patron Units you call goddesses. We assist them in governing this world On the other hand, we perform missionary work to spread our beliefs. That's the gist of it. Did that help?"

"Hmm, no, not particularly. I was expecting weird cult people here, but you guys seem normal enough." Neptune smiled while scratched the back of her head and smiled nervously.

Shrugged the man said. "Well, it's different everywhere. Some Basilicoms may be construed as weird. I really shouldn't say such things. though."

"So there's a weird one? Nice. The people too?" Neptune, asked.

"Uh, sure." the man awkwardly replied. "Well, why not get back to your friends? You don't want them to wait too long, after all."

"Yeah, okay. Bye!" Neptune said with a bright smile, before running away and exited the building.

After she left, the man smiled before looking down at the book he was holding.

"Neptune. A nice name for a nice girl." he chuckled softly.

* * *

As she saw Neptune walking out of the Basilicom, IF quickly aproached her. "So, how is it?"

Neptune closed her eyes and smiled. "Well, I do get some knowledge about assisting the goddess and stuff. Oh, we also now have the permission to travel between the landmasses."

"That's good to hear." IF nodded before pulling out her phone. "So, what landmass that we're heading first? The Black Regality, Lastation? The white Serenity, Lowee? Or the Green Pastures, Leanbox?" IF asked.

"Hm, this is hard, we're not thinking about this yet." Compa muttered while tapping her chin.

"Oh, how about if we just wait which landmass that comes closer first?" Neptune suggested while brings her hands up.

"Okay," IF looked at her phone began typing, a moment later, she nodded to herself and looked at her companions. "It's Lastation, the landmass was currently heading towards Planeptune. But, it's arrival was at 7 PM. Which means that we needs to wait until evening." she said while closing her phone and put it in one of the holster.

"Sweet! Let's go to Compa's house, I'm hungry and I need puddings." Neptune happily said before running away to the direction of Compa's house.

"Nep-Nep, wait!" Compa yelled before chasing after her friend.

Meanwhile, IF just merely sighed and shook her head. "Good grief." she muttered before following after them.

* * *

Later that evening...

Neptune and her friends arrived at the Space Harbor, where they and several other people waiting patiently for the land of Black Regality in the distance, slowly approaching the landmass they currently in.

"Ooh, look, the ground is split here! Did this happen during some great war from long, long ago?!" Neptune energetically said as she leaned forward while grabbing the iron fences that was on the edge of the landmass. "I betcha it was a totally crazy, epic war between some profound sort of darkness and a really great light!"

As she continued babbling around loudly, some people in there staring at her like she was crazy.

While IF looked at her in confusion and annoyance. "...What's she babbling about?"

"I'm sorry. Please be patient with her. She really doesn't remember anything... I think." Compa said to the people around her, and the people slowly nodded and decided to ignore Neptune's antics.

IF sighed in relief before looking at Compa. "I forgot to ask this when we were talking earlier. How long have you known her?" IF asked in curiosity.

Looking at Neptune then at IF, Compa sighed. "A few days. We first met at Planeptune's central city's hospital, she was one of the victim of Haneda city incident, and I was tasked to take care of her." Compa explained.

"Right, I know that I've heard about that Incident, but can you tell me in detail?" As Compa tilted her head, IF sighed softly. "I wasn't around here when that incident happen, I was in Leanbox, taking care some monsters as requested by the guild in there."

"Well, It was an incident where a hordes of monsters invaded that city, killed a few people, and forced the people to get evacuated. The city was at the hands of the monsters for a couple of days, but that was until Nep-Nep saved the city."

It took several moments for IF to process the info. "Wait, what?!"

"It was just two days ago, when Nep-Nep ran away from my house in the middle of the night with just a wooden sword in her hands and headed to Haneda city who was still ravaged by monsters, alone." Compa explained while looking at Neptune. "When I woke up in the morning, I found a note written by her, which explained to me about her intention to save the city, which made me panic and quickly called the hospital to form a special team to rescue Nep-Nep. But when we arrived in there, we founded that the monsters were all gone, and there's only Nep-Nep in there, unconsciousness, and injured. No one knows what happen that night, except for Nep-Nep."

It was a confusing and shocking info to hear for IF, how could this annoying, silly, and carefree girl could save an entire city from monsters? It just doesn't make any sense at all.

"So," IF began. "Did she tell you about what happen?" IF asked curiously, and Compa shook her head.

"No, Nep-Nep said she doesn't know either. She only said that it was complicated, and unbelievable for anyone to hear it." Compa sighed softly. "I do wanna hear it too, you know?" Compa said, before walking towards Neptune.

"Lookie look! That landmass is just a few miles now, how much times left for it to come even more closer?" Neptune asked while pointing at Lastation.

"About three minutes left." IF said while looking at her phone.

"Oh, I see. So how do I cross over? Should I jump? Should I shout 'wahoo!' as I do it?" her babbling earned a few giggles from everyone around her.

"Why not slap some overalls and a red hat while you're at it?" IF said while smirking. "Actually, we use a bridge to cross over. And we need the Basilicom's permit to get the bridge lowered. Now we can use it anytime."

"I wonder what kind of journey that await us in that smoky land." Neptune muttered as she looked at the dark sky that covered Lastation.

* * *

Somewhere else...

There was a dark room, with only one single dim lamp on the ceiling as a source of light.

In the center of the room, A raven-haired twintails opened her eyes slowly, and the first thing that she saw was the lamp.

"Where am I? What is this place." She asked to no one in particular.

She tried to sat up but failed, as she found herself shackled to the floor.

"Wait... this seems familiar..." She muttered before a sound of a distant steps caught her attention, and a moment later, she grew pale, and now she was in a panic, her heart beating faster and faster as she panicly tried to free herself from the restrainment to no avail.

The sound of the steps become closer and closer, before eventually stops.

The ravenette's heart stops beating for a moment, and she tried to steady her breathing.

Then, she slowly turned her head to the left to saw a pair of legs, covered in black and purple stockings.

' _It's her!_ ' the ravenette thought.

_"Well well well, Looks who's here? My favorite."_

A moments later, the shackles that restrained the ravenette has moved, and now the black-haired girl was shackled to the walls.

_"I wonder how long since we've last met, a week? a month? a year? a millennia?"_

"It's... only yesterday..." the ravenette said weakly.

" _Just a day, huh?"_

The person that was covered in shadows muttered, before chuckling.

" _How unfortunate of you, only have a day for you to have a break from me, while I'm feeling like it was ages for me to wait for you to come here."_

"Please..." the ravenette began. "Please no more."

_"You said the same thing the last time we did this, and all the times before it."_

Suddenly, a giant burning sword materialized in the person's hand, and she quickly use it to stab the ravenette right on her heart.

The ravenette letting out a scream of pain and agony, while the person laugh manically.

After a few moments, the person pulled out the sword from the ravenette's chest that now has a big hole in it. But the hole was later quickly regenerated back and now it was good as new.

Gasping, as her consciousness came back to her. The ravenette giving the person in front of her a pleading and apologizing look.

"Please... please forgive me... you won't get anything by doing this..."

_"Two things"_

The person said while brings up two fingers.

_"First, I will never forgive you, why? because you never listen to me back in the past. And two, I do get something from doing this, I get an enjoyment of revenge."_

"But that wasn't like you..." she groaned softly. "Revenge is not your thing... Isn't it... _Neptune?"_

Neptune fell silent, she couldn't say anything about that sentence.

A moment later, the ravenette letting out another scream, when Neptune stabbed her in the chest for the second time.

_"You're right, revenge isn't my thing. But that was when I'm alive, not when I died because of YOU!"_

Pulling out her sword, and letting the ravenette come back to live again, Neptune grinned sadistically.

_"You cannot escape, both me and living me will always haunt you to the core, we will haunt you until you cannot sleep, and cannot awake either, we will KILL YOU!"_

And so, Neptune continued to tortured the ravenette again and again, each time the girl died, she will lived again, only to get killed again, and lived again, and the process continues on and on until...

* * *

Gasping loudly, a raven-haired girl sat up on her bed. Her entire body was sweating, her breathing were heavy, and her heart beating like a machine gun.

Looking around, she found herself inside her own room. It was nighttime, and yet she couldn't sleep because of a reccuring nightmare.

Nervously, she looked down at her chest to find that there's no hole in it.

She sighed in relief, but her relief was short living as she started crying on her bed.

"Why won't these nightmare go away?"

  
To be Continued...


	8. Lastation

Chapter 7

Lastation, the Land of Black Regality. Protected by Console Patron Unit, CPU Black Heart.

In this land, factories and smog are all over the places, with dark-grey sky covered the land from above, and cold temperature along with fog covered the land, with just a little bit of green spaces left.

After a few hours connected to it's felow landmass, Planeptune, the land slowly drift away from it and disconnected the connection between the two of the floating land.

* * *

"Wow, this place its all steampunky and spiffy and futuristic! It's called... Lastation, right? Iffy?" A certain purple haired girl in a white hoodie, in the middle of the landmass' central city, excitedly asked her companion.

Letting out a sigh, a brunette in a blue trench coat, and currently holding a pink colored Phone, nodded. "Yes, Lastation. Ruled by Console Patron Unit Black Heart. The land is mostly obscured by industrial factories."

"So, um, does the "theme" of each landmass match with that goddess's preference?" the purplette asked her brown-haired friend again.

"I don't think so." her friend said while shaking her head. "The CPUs are here to protect us, but humans develop the civilization itself." explained IF.

"Aw, that's so realistic." she muttered before looking at her other companion, a congo-haired cheerful girl. "Compa, what are your thoughts on this place?" she asked.

"These factories and chimneys... reminds me of an industrial revolution." Compa said while looking around her, then shook her head. "I'm not familiar with these kind of thing."

Smirking, IF closed her phone and put it in one of her phone holster. "I suppose it's not appealing to mainstream girls. I think it's cool." she then turned around and began walking. "Anyway, let's go to the Basilicom."

Tilted her head in confusion, Neptune quickly approached IF from behind. "Are we gonna go and see the goddess right now? What are we gonna do? Ask photograph? Taking pictures together? Or maybe become friends with her?" She asked while walking besides IF.

Twitched in annoyance, IF merely shook her head. "Of course not, you idiot, we're gonna asked about monsters, so we could get the key fragment as fast as we could." IF explained while looking at Neptune. "Besides, what are the chances for becoming a friend with a goddess?"

"Aw, I mean if you were high amongs the people, then regular people cannot just interact with you freely, you know? Can you imagine how lonely it was? having no friends, and only work as your daily activity." Neptune asked her friend, and IF just shrugged.

"Sure, that make sense, i guess."

* * *

After several hours of searching, the party finally arrived at Lastation Basilicom, where the goddess of the land lives and rule. From the outside, the building was almost completely identical to the building in Planeptune, with just only a couple of minor difference.

When they got closer to the entrance, they could see a guard standing in front of the front door, preventing them to get inside.

"Shall we talk to him so he can let us get inside?" Compa asked her companions.

"Yeah, let's do that." IF said while nodded.

Slowly, they approached the guy, and Neptune was the first one to speak. "Um, 'scuse me! I wanna get some information about monsters. May I come in?" Neptune asked the guard in front of her, who was looking at her in confusion.

"Monsters? What're you going to do with this information?" the man asked, while glaring at them respectively.

"We're searching for an item called the key fragment. We must defeat a strong monsters to get one." Compa trying to explain, but the guard scoffed.

"Defeat monsters? Don't be so foolish. Even the Lastation Defense Force doesn't stand a chance against them." he frowned and shook his head in annoyance. "You are nothing more than children. Go home!" he shouted at them.

Clearly surprised and upset at the insult. Compa began to tear up. "Y-you shouldn't judge us by our appearances." Compa whined tearfully. "We've defeated lots and lots of monsters already." she then pointed at Neptune. "Nep-Nep here has saved the Haneda city of Planeptune, because she was really strong, even at her age. We will show you!" this sentence however makes both IF and Neptune jerked in surprise.

Approaching her friend, IF quickly grabbed Compa's arms and pulled her closer. "What the hell are you doing?!" IF asked in an angry tone while glared at her friend.

"Haneda city? That city who gets ravaged by monsters? Saved it? What the hell is wrong within your head? Just leave now!" he shouted again in an angry tone.

Having enough of this by just watching, Neptune quickly approached the guard. "We are just wasting time talking to this old fart in here, why don't you just let us go inside and talked to the goddess for information, already!" Neptune said in a slight angry tone.

"Lady Black Heart isn't here, she's go out without even telling any us. Even if she was here, she wouldn't even care to spend her time for little brats like you." the guard said in an angry tone.

Stomping the ground beneath her in anger. Neptune slowly take a deep breath to calm herself down, before turning away with a huff. "Let's go you guys, this arrogant old fart already shows us what kind of leader, Black Heart is when you meet the people who serve her." Neptune said in a bitchy tone.

"We're not like those who suck up to Black Heart! You better watch your mouth you little brat!" He shouted again while pointing at Neptune.

"My butt." Neptune smugly said while wiggling her butt in front of him.

"YOU! Come back here!" the man yelled at the girls that was running away.

* * *

Panting and sweating from the run, the girls found themselves back in the central city, where they take a break in a nearby not-so-green park.

"What should we do now? We couldn't even get inside the Basilicom." Compa muttered as she sat down on a bench.

Meanwhile, Neptune just sighed and sit down besides Compa. "He didn't haffta be such a party pooper." She muttered before letting out a soft sigh. "I guess people are different everywhere... sometimes the world is so cruel."

"And who do you think the one that makes it cruel?!" IF asked angrily while giving Neptune a slightly powerful bop on her head. But the moment IF made contact with Neptune's forehead, it was her hand that felt pain. "Ow!" she yelled while shake off her hand. "Goodness, how thick is that skull of yours?"

"Huh? But I don't feel any pain? Are your hand in pain Iffy?" Neptune asked, as IF looking down at her with annoyance, she rubbed the back of her head. "Sorry then."

"Whatever." she shrugged. "By the way, did you hear the way he was talking? He really crossed the line talking about their CPU like that." IF asked and both Compa and Neptune nodded in agreement. "Do you remember the person at Planeptune Basilicom?" IF asked and they both nodded. "He was weird, but he still respected the CPU by addressing her properly. But here, they're just treating the CPU with scorn."

After a few minutes, Neptune stood up and stretch while letting out a groan. "If the Basilicom won't give us information, then maybe we should ask around about monsters in town."

Her two companions looked at her, and then nodded. "Good idea." Compa said before stood up and stretch as well. "It may take longer, but we just got here and we don't know much about Lastation yet. Are you agree Iffy?" she asked her friend that stood up as well.

"Yeah, if I think about it, it's not fun if we just cleared this journey quickly, it will be a lot of fun if we do it slowly and enjoy it." IF said while nodding.

"This is just the begining. Let's take our time, explore, and learnt." Compa said cheerfully.

"Okay then, let me book up a hotel where we can stay." IF said while taking out her phone and start searching.

"Hey, Compa, wanna go see what this city have for us?" Neptune asked while walking towards the city central plaza.

"Yes, let's go together. You want to come with us, Iffy?" Compa asked while stretching out her hands to IF.

"No thanks, I'm just wanna relax in here, you two have fun, and meet me in here again after you're done." IF replied while shaking her head and smiling.

"Okie dokie then. Nep-Nep, wait for me!" Compa yelled then run off to catch her friend.

"Those two..." Letting out a sigh, IF smiled, then returned her focus back to her phone.

* * *

Somewhere else in Lastation...

A certain raven-haired girl rushed into her enemy, an Ancient Dragon. "It's time to finish this!" She said while preparing the short sword in her hand. "Drop Crush!" she yelled before slashed her enemy and send it to mid-air before jumping after it, slashed several times, then kick it down, sending the dragon slammed into the floor and created a giant crater.

The dragon letting out it's last sigh before it's head flopped to the ground, and it's body get dematerialized.

Sighing, she then scoffed. "Well, that was easy, what a fool to have faced me!" the girl said arrogantly.

The girl was in mid-to-late teens, with a slender figure, red eyes, and long black hair, with her hair is kept tied into two pigtails with blue ribbons, and go down to her waist. Her attire consists of a maid-like black top with golden trimmings and white frills around her upper arm and chest, and also reveals a certain portion of her cleavage. And her skirt is white with black trimming and is rather frilled compared to her top, and goes down to her lower-thigh.

"Whew... I didn't expect so many monsters spawn in the land." She muttered as she took the time to sit down and relax, leaning against a nearby tree.

Opening her eyes to looked up, she stared at the dark sky of Lastation.

"Monsters is everywhere, and they interupted Lastation's factories. I wonder where they are come from." letting out a soft sigh, she closed her eyes and thinking, her mind went back into the past, hundreds of years ago.

'I remember that day, the day when the Console Wars ended. The day when things... things change.' the girl though as she remembered all of it correctly. 'After so long, years after years, we... we finally defeat _her_ , no, that's incorrect, we finally _kill_ _ed_ _her_ , that's the one.'

Letting out another sigh, she continued.

'It was a satisfying moments of victory, a very satisfying moments to finally get rid of the one that always stands in my way. We was planning to continued the fight of death until there's only one of us remains alive.' she shook her head slowly. 'But that was when monsters shows up and give us a surprise attack. There's so many of them up there, and our exhaustion from the battle to kill _her_ makes it worse, they forced us to retreat to the world below, only to find out it was in the same condition as in Celestia.'

Opening her eyes, her red eyes continued to stare at the sky.

'And ever since then, _she_ always come when I was asleep, torturing me everyday in my dream.' letting out a sigh, she stands up and start walking towards home. 'Is it true that _she_ wouldn't let me sleep? Or let me awake either?'

After several minutes of walking, her home could be seen in the distance. 'But I wonder, what does _she_ meant of _"living me"?'_ letting out another sigh, she slowly opened the door. "I'm home!"

"Ah, Lady Black Heart, you're back!" A man with light blue colored hair, dressed in gray Basilicom uniform with red trimmings greeted the girl. "We've made mention many times to not go out alone without telling us." he scolded her.

The girl scoffed and looked away. "When and where I am is my choice. Are you trying to confine me? Sit here nice and pretty like a wall flower?" she asked while glaring at the man.

"N-no, that's not what I'm getting at. I'm just worried about you, considering of... well, you know." the man shrugged.

The girl shook her head while closing her eyes. "Anything to tell me while I was gone?"

The man shook his head. "No, nothing in particular."

"Particular? So I assume something did happen, then." she asked and the man nodded.

"It was just, this noon, a group of annoying girls come to the Basilicom and caused a commotion." he explained. "They're here to ask information about monsters, and also asked for permission to see you."

"Permission to see me?" the girl asked and the man nodded.

"But, that's not just it. They insult the Basilicom and think low of you, one of the girls, a short purple haired one, even dare to mock us without even a hint of regrets."

This last sentence, however, tensed up the girl. "A short purple hair? Do you know her name?" she asked with a serious expression.

"No. But what I know is, the girl wears a white hoodie with a name carved on it's back, the name was Neptune." he explained.

And with that, her jaw dropped. "Impossible... Impossible, how could this be? There's no way she's alive." the girl whispered.

"Uh, could it be, the girl was an acquintance of yours? Lady Black Heart?" the man asked.

"I... I need to go to my room." the man nodded, and the girl quickly headed to her room.

Entering it, she quickly closed the door behind her and locked it. Slumping to her knees, she leaned against the door behind her.

"How? How could she still alive? I remembered it, I remembered to stabbed her in her heart." she muttered as the memory flows. "She stopped breathing, her entire body was cold like an ice, and..." she trailed off. "There was a sad look on her face."

'Is this what she meant of "Living Me"? Is she's here to kill me? just like she said?'

* * *

"Wow! This place looks awesome!" Neptune cheerfully said as she looked around the lobby of the hotel where they're gonna stay.

"It's not that great actually." IF said while walking to the counter. "Excuse me, is there a room for us?" she asked the receptionist that was standing behind the table.

"Of course." the receptionist said while nodding. "Could you write your name and your friend's names here?" she asked while handing IF a book and a pen that she used to write her and her companions name. "There you go, here." she said while handing a key that has the number of the room.

"Let's go." IF said to her companions who both nodded and followed her to the room where they're going to sleep in.

To be Continued...


	9. Working

_"Let's switch it up today. Anyone thinking of moving to Lastation? Of course you are."_

_"I, Lastation's CPU Black Heart, will tell you all about this land."_

_"People call Lastation the 'Land of Black Regality.'"_

_"You can also use words like 'mechanic land' or 'steam punk' if you want. Not like I really care."_

_"Compared to the other landmasses, Lastation is the most advanced than all of them, thanks to our instense development."_

_"That's the gist of Lastation. Which is sometimes also called the 'Dignified Black Land.'"_

_"_ _I don't know when I'll update this, but I'll write more about Lastation. Doesn't matter to me if you read it or not."_

* * *

"That's... harsh." IF muttered as the blog ended. "Didn't expect the CPU of Lastation herself to be this rude." IF muttered before bring her focus back to her phone.

She and the rest of the party was now inside the room that they rented yesterday, the room was big, with six bed, three in each left and right side of the room, several Windows, four lamps on the ceiling, a single fan, and a brown carpet with diamonds pattern.

"What are ya looking there, Iffy?" Neptune asked while approaching IF and sits beside her in one of the bed in there, and peeked at what IF currently doing in her phone.

"I'm just checking the Goddess blog. It was the place where Goddesses of each landmass shares their daily life, useful info, and news." IF explained, still looking at her phone.

"Has anyone accepted our offer of services yet?" Compa asked from another bed, while cleaning her giant syringe with a rag.

"If you're talking about extreminating monsters, then yes. Someone already accept it, and apparently she wanted us to come to the central city to meet her personaly, this noon." IF said while nodded.

"Oh, look at the time! Let's go get some breakfast and explore the city." Neptune excitedly said, before get off of the bed and exited the room, followed by IF and Compa.

* * *

"So, any updates regarding of Neptune's whereabouts?" A black-haired girl, with her hair tied in twin tails, curiously asked one of the staff.

"Unfortunately, no. We haven't received any info regarding of the girl's whereabouts." the staff replied with a sorry expression.

"Damn it!" she silently yelled after clicking her tongue. 'My nigmares become more intense because of these thoughts. I could awake like three to four times at night.' she thought to herself.

Sighing in defeat, she shook her head and turn her gaze back to the paperwork below her.

"Alright, you can go now." She said while filling the paper on her desk.

"Lady Black Heart," the staff began waiting for her lady to looked up at her. "I know that this might be personal, but, why are you so obbsessed to find this girl?" the staff nervously asked, hoping to not angered her with the question.

"It's..." Black Heart began, her eyes staring at her right hand that was currently holding a pen, for a second she imagined it was a sword instead. "It's complicated." She sighed and shook her head. "I just wanted to get an answer, that's all."

"I see." the staff nodded slowly. "Please, excuse me." Black Heart nodded as the staff exited the room.

After a few moments of silence, the ravenette gritted her teeth, while her hand gripped the pen tightly, almost made it snap in half.

"Damn it! Where are you?" she muttered while slamming the table softly, before calming herself down.

After sucessfully calming herself, she continued to fill the paper in silence.

* * *

Later that noon...

The party walked around the city center in search of their client, and since it was very crowded in there, finding her proved to be difficult.

After several minutes of walking, Compa spotted a blue haired person in the distant, after some moments of thinking, she realized the person was fit with the description that they were told.

"Is that her? The person who want us to fight monsters?" Compa asked her two companions while pointing at the person she saw.

"Huh? She's kinda small, isn't she? I was thinking, like a... big burly man as president." Neptune muttered as she inspected the person that Compa was pointing.

After a while, the person in the distant saw them, and after a few moments of looking at them, she smiled and waved her hand up in the air.

"Oh, she saw us. She's waving at us... She's gotta be the right person." Compa said to the party before they approached the person.

"I suppose she's come to the same conclusion about us." IF replied while crossing her arms.

The person that they approached was a woman with blue hair and worn with a pair of goggles with gold colored frames and blue colored lense. While her eyes are bright gold and she has a bandage patch on the left cheek. Her outfit consists of a deep pink jacket with multiple pockets and buttons, a black tube top, a white scarf, a black jeans, and a pair of black boots.

"So it's you girls? You're gonna fight the monsters for me? ...Are you sure you'll be okay?" The woman asked while looking at the party one by one.

Letting out a sigh IF shook her head. "We all know to not judge books by their covers, right?" IF asked before giving her hand and the woman shook it. "Nice to meet you. I'm IF. This is Compa, and that's Neptune." she introduced them while pointing at them respectively.

"My name's Chian. I run a small factory called Passe in the central city." the woman introduced herself after taking back her hand. "We need someone to get rid of the monsters attacking our carriages and train. You ladies sure you can handle it?" she asked again.

"You betcha! We know how to fight. So we'll totally be victorious!" Neptune confidently replied while putting her hands beside her, and a big smile on her face.

Chuckling the woman nodded in understandment. "I like you. Your confidence makes it much easier for me to trust your words."

"So, about this work," IF began. "Could you tell us the details of the work?" IF asked while crossing her arms.

"Sure." Chian nodded. "I need you to take care of the monsters around the trade route." she said while giving them a serious expression. "It used to be safe, but recently, a large group of monsters appeared out of nowhere. With the route unsafe, all trade was halted." she explained.

"Bingo. This is the work we're looking for. We'll take that order." IF said while nodding and smiling.

Smiling, Chian nodded back. "Good. With Avenir killing the market, we don't need anymore troubles."

"Avenir?" Compa tilted her head in confusion "What is this Avenir?" she asked curiously.

"Wait, you don't know Avenir?" Chian asked with a surprised look.

"Yes. We just arrived in Lastation yesterday, so we don't know about this "Avenir"." Compa replied with a nod.

Sighed, Chian shook her head. "Avenir is a major company that's pretty much ruling Lastation." she explained. "They make everything from goods to weapons, and is controling the market." she let out another sigh. "People like me can't compete with them, so our products don't sell well."

"That's terrible. It against the antitrust laws!" Compa commented, grimaced at the explanation.

Suddenly, a phone rang, and Chian pulled out her phone to see that she got a call.

"Well, I have to get back to work now. I'll send the location where the trade route is, I hope you guys can handle it, good luck." Chian said before walking away with her left hand waving at them while her right hand answering the call and put her phone on her ears.

"She seems to be a really nice person." Compa commented, smiling as she looked at the direction where Chian go.

"Seems like it." IF nodded, before pulling out her phone. "Well, she's already sent the location to us. Let's go." her companions nodded, and the party quickly headed to the location.

* * *

"Here we go again, another cave." Neptune muttered as she looked around the entrance of the cave where monsters that they have to terminated resides. "I wonder why they chose this cave as a trade route."

"It's because there's tunnels inside the cave that connected two cities." IF answered while looking at her phone. "Reports says that the monsters are taking over this cave a couple of days ago, making the trade route inacessable."

"So, shall we go in?" Compa asked, getting a nod from her friends, and the three of them entered the cave.

* * *

Inside the cave, numerous monsters in all species, roaming around the cave interior, one of it was a giant brown scaled dragon, with glowing yellow eyes, giant claws, and wings on it's back.

"There's so many of them, and that dragon must be the boss of these guys." Neptune muttered as she observed the monsters while hiding behind a stalagmite.

"Do we have a plan, Iffy?" Compa asked IF who was also observing the monsters.

"Not yet, I'm still thinking..." replied while rubbing her chin as she thinking.

"I have a plan." Neptune said, making her friends turned their head to look at her with surprise, as they all know that Neptune was not the one that could make any sorts of plan.

"Really? What is it?" IF asked curiously, but on the other side, her mind keep saying that doesn't want to know.

"STRIKE!" Neptune yelled as she jumped out of the hiding place and directly into the crowd of mosnters, swinging her sword to any monsters that she faced.

"That idiot!" IF angrliy muttered while gritting her teeth. "Heck with it, let's go Compa." IF said while pulled out her katars and followed Neptune.

Compa nodded and pulled out her gigantic syringe, and used it to shoot several frog like creatures that hiding under a cupboard box.

"Watch out, behind you geez!" IF said as she slashed at several Dogoos that have tentacles coming out from their downside, that sneaking out behind Neptune.

"Thanks, Iffy." Neptune said while looking behind her, before quickly blocked an attack from a egg like creature with it's shell has a black colour, two floating hands, and two glowing yellow eyes.

The force of the attack pushed Neptune away, with her back touching IF's back, the two was surrounded by horde of monsters. "How are we gonna take them?" Neptune asked.

"Like this." IF extended her hand to the monsters in front of her. "La Delphinus!" IF yelled as a large white colored circle rune appeared on the ground, below the monsters, from the center of the rune, a giant beam appeared and engulfed the monsters on top of it, while knocking away the monsters near it.

"Wow!" Neptune exclaimed in amazement. "how did you do that, Iffy?" she asked curiously, but her question wad interupted by another monsters tried to attacking her.

"Magic." IF answered, before turned around to help Neptune with her enemies.

Meanwhile, back at the hidden spot, like an expert sniper, Compa aimed at the dragon that was behind the horde, trying to get it's attention, so it can't interupt IF and Neptune's battles.

As she pushed the giant plunger, the syringe shot several substance at the dragon, hitting it right in the head.

Gained it's attention, the dragon turned to looked for Compa, and ignoring IF and Neptune.

"Demonic Inferno!" IF yelled as she extended her hand that has a firery aura in it.

Several small explosion happen around the monsters before a giant burning flame appeared and burned many monsters that get caught in it's flames.

"Aww, I want to be able to do that too." Neptune groaned before sighing as she realized that it was impossible.

"Now that was clear, where's..." IF trailed off when she couldn't find where was the dragon. "Where did it go?" IF asked while looking around.

"I don't know. Maybe it leave?" Neptune guessed.

"Nep-Nep! Iffy! Heeeeellp!" Compa screamed as she ran away from the dragon that was chasing her from behind.

"Ah! There it is!" Neptune exclaimed hapily before taking out her handgun and fired several bullets at the dragon, with IF doing the same thing.

The dragon roared angrily before letting out a fire breath from it's mouth, which the party quickly dodged by rolling to the side.

Still firing, the dragon used it's hand to protect itself from the bullets which proven to be effective, since the scale around it's hands and legs are much more thicker than the others, making it bulletproof.

The party realized this and stop shooting as the dragon letting out another fire breaths again.

"Normal bullets cannot pierce the scales around it's arms and legs. And fighting it in close range are too dangerous. What are we going to do?" Compa asked with a woried tone.

The party was now hiding behind stalagmites, and the dragon could not find them, so they spend some time to think.

"Hey Iffy," Neptune began, as she looked at IF. "Could you do those magic attacks again?" Neptune asked with a serious expression.

IF shook her head and closed her eyes. "Nope, I can't. I've used it too many times, and I need some times left to use it again." IF explained.

"How much time left?" Neptune asked again with much more serious tone.

"A couple of minutes." IF replied while looking at, curious at what was the purple-haired girl thinking.

"Right. Then," Neptune looked behind the stalagmites to find the dragon was walking towards their hiding spot. Looking back at IF she nodded. "Wait here until you're able to use that attack again, I will stall some time." Neptune said before pulled out her handgun, then detached it's magazines box, and emptied it from it's current bullets.

"Stall time? Are you crazy? That dragon is a boss monster! How are you gonna win a fight against it alone? You couldn't even use magic attacks." IF protested, actually surprised to find someone who dare to fight a boss monster alone.

Neptune on the other hand, just ignored the complain, and continued to emptied the box out of it's current bullets, then fills it with different bullets, which has light elements in it.

"Are you listening to me?" IF growled in anger.

"Yes, I hear you." Neptune said before standing up and looked back at the dragon who become more closer. "Compa, cover me."

"Nep-Nep, are you sure you're gonna do this?" Compa asked worriedly.

"Of course, I'm the main character, so of course I'm gonna be alright." Neptune said before going out from her cover, Luckly the dragon didn't see her when she came out of hiding, so she used it to sneak behind the dragon, created some distance, before yelled. "Hey, Dragon! Over here!"

Hearing Neptune's yell, the dragon turned around, just to get a headshot from Neptune. After the first shot, Neptune continued to fired several more bullets at the dragon's head, but the dragon eventually cover it's face with it's hand, and now running towards Neptune.

With it's head shielded by it's hand, Neptune tried to shoot it's torso, but the dragon used it's other hand to cover it up aswell.

When the dragon was now directly in front of Neptune, the dragon swung it's giant hand at Neptune, trying to hit her by using it's sharp claws. But only for Neptune to quickly rolled to the side and avoid it. Using it's other hand, the dragon tried to smash Neptune with it's fist, but Neptune quickly rolled to the front to dodge the attack again. This time, using both of it's hands, the dragon tried to catch Neptune, but she quickly ran and ducked to avoid the catch, sliding through between the dragon's legs and fired more bullets to it's nether, then it's backside, and it's wings.

Frustrated, the dragon quickly spun around and ran at Neptune, before doing an uppercut move that instead used by Neptune to launch herself up into the air, before shots more bullets to the dragon's head while still falling down.

The dragon then swing it's fist up to punch Neptune at mid-air, but Neptune was far more skillful than it could've imagine, while in mid-air, Neptune doing a back-flip with the result of her legs kicked the dragon right on it's face. Paralized the dragon for several moments, and used this opportunity to get away from the dragon.

"It's ready!" IF yelled as she came out of hiding, then extended her hand towards the dragon. "La Delphinus!" the same white circle rune appeared around the dragon, then, a bright light engulfed the dragon, hurting it.

After several moments, the lights faded and the dragon collapsed, laying down on the floor, lifeless.

"Whew, that was pretty tough." Neptune groaned as she wiped the sweat that builds up on her forehead.

"Wow, Nep-Nep... that was... amazing..." Compa said, her mouth agape for the amount of shock she recieved.

"Nah, don't sweat it, that was nothing for a main character like me." Neptune smiled proudly, while putting her hands on her hips.

"Seriously Nep," IF began while walking towards the lifeless dragon that laying on the floor. "Where did you learn those moves?" IF asked curiously, while busy trying to cut off the dragon's claw.

"Did you mean those 'amazing' moves?" Neptune asked proudly.

Rolled her eyes in annoyance IF sighed. "Whatever, so where did you learn it?" She asked again while using her katars to try cutting the claw.

"Well, it was..." Neptune trailed off, confused about how to answer it, when she had no memory. "I... I don't know."

"You don't know?" IF asked tilted her head in confusion.

"Well, more like I don't remember." Neptune shrugged.

When they got the proof of their sucessfull mission, the party headed to the exit of the cave.

"The monsters are so numerous here, makes things that much more entertaining." Neptune muttered as she and her friends walked towards the exit.

"It's probably right. Why do you think there are so many monsters here? I thought since Planeptune didn't have a goddess to protect it, it was reasonable for many monsters to live in there. But to think that the other landmasses having the same problem, is unbelievable." Compa said while looking around the cave to see if there are anymore monsters.

Neptune shook her head. "Don't ask me." She shrugged. "But I do hear some people said it was because of the diminishing power of the CPUs." Neptune put her hand on her chin, then looked at IF who was behind her. "Do their powers even weaken?"

Crossing her arms, IF nodded. "Well, their power comes from the faith of humanity. If monsters keep attacking people, their faith will be shaken." IF explained. "Meaning less protection, more monsters attacks, more people, less faith... It's a downward spiral." IF continued, then, she looked at Neptune in confusion. "Are you seriously didn't know about that?" she asked.

Neptune nodded. "Well, tell that to my amnesia." Neptune said while shrugged. "But that's succinct. So, as more time passes, more monsters will appear." Neptune muttered while rubbing her chin.

"I-I didn't think that way, but it make sense! What do we do?" Compa panicly asked.

Neptune closed her eyes as she remembered something. "Don't worry, we'll just have to trust Histy for now, because, just like she said, freeing her will save countless of lives all across the world." Neptune said while putting her hand on Compa's shoulder. "Besides," she began. "If I remembered correctly, A faint memory of mine telling me that someone that I don't know, told me... I'm the only one who can save the world." Neptune said, retrieving her hand and oppened her eyes. "I can save it. And I just prove it a few minutes ago."

As they reached the Exit, Neptune got out first, while her friends walking behind her.

"I know that Nep-Nep coud be such a clumsy and ditzy girl sometimes, but her strong sense of justice is unbreakable." Compa muttered, smiling as she watched Neptune walking around hapily.

"I think I agree." IF replied closing her eyes, and enjoy the calm wind blowing through her.

* * *

"Well, with this proof right here, I couldn't tell you're telling a lies." Chian said as she inspected the dragon claw that the party brings. "I thank you for clearing up the trade route, with the route cleared, we don't need to worry about being attacked by monsters again. Take this as a reward." Chian pulled out a cloth bag full of credits.

"Thanks, it's not such a big deal actually, dealing monsters are our speciality, so call us anytime you needed help." IF said, nodded while taking the bag from Chian.

"Well, see you girls around." Chian waved as she walked away to her home.

"I know we just started, but that sorta dinky for a reward..." Neptune muttered as she looked at the bag's content.

"It's because business isn't going well because Avenir monopolizing their industry." Compa explained with a sad look on her face.

"Not only that, smaller factories are closing down due to Avenir aswell, but I don't think it's the only reason." IF added with a concerned look.

"Monopolizing is bad right? Then, like, that company is an evil conglomerate!" Neptune exclaimed energeticaly.

Smirking, IF shook her head. "...Are you going to assault them if I agree with you? We can't just assume a company's bad because they're successful."

Shaking her head, Neptune glared at IF, a serious expression on her face. "But I can't ignore the fact that people are suffering cuz of them! If I take down that company, a lotta people would be happy!" she stated with a determined look.

Sighing, IF crossed her arms. "I don't think 'take down' is the right term." IF said. "We usually defer the Basilicom for these issues, not violence."

"But we were told to leave there. How will we get the Key Fragment or stop Avenir like this?" Compa asked, confused about their next plan.

"Avenir aside, I'm very hungry, I want pudding. Can we gat back to the hotel?" Neptune asked while rubbing her growling belly.

Sighing, IF nodded. "Fine, let's go."

"Wohoo!" Neptune jumped hapiliy, before the three of them headed back to the hotel.

* * *

There was a knock on the door. A black-haired girl, tied in twin tails who was currently sitting on her desk turned her head to look at the door. "Come in." she said.

The door opened, revealing it was one the staff that worked in her house that knocked the door, and judging from the absence of paperworks that the staff usually brings, the ravenette knows the reason why she was here.

"Do you have anything to reports me?" the ravenette asked curiously.

"Yes, milady." the staff nodded. "It has appeared that one of the dungeons invested by monsters, has been cleared." the staff explained. "And the reports showing that the one who cleared the dungeons was none other than just a bunch of little girls." The staff continued. "One of the girls on that group, matches the description of the one that you searched."

"I see." the ravenette nodded. 'What is _she_ doing? Clearing out dungeons in my landmass instead of her own? Is _she_ perhaps trying to steal my people's faith or something?' the ravenette continued to think before she realized that the staff was still there. "You can leave now."

"Thank you, Lady Black Heart." the staff bowed before exited the room, leaving Black Heart lost in her thoughts.

"What is _she_ planning?"

To be Continued...


	10. Plans

_"Hey, it's been a while."_

_"This is Black Heart. Lastation's CPU."_

_"Today I'm gonna focus on the education system of Lastation."_

_"Remember I said Lastation sometimes called 'mechanic land?'"_

_"To surpass the other Landmasses, our main focus with education is to raise engineers and technicians."_

_"Lastation offers Affordable technology courses. The most affordable on Gamindustri."_

_"The students will soon become professionals and support Lastation's future-proof growth."_

_"I suggest you come to Lastation if your dream is to become an engineer."_

_"That's it. See you in the next update"_

* * *

"Interesting." IF muttered, nodded as the blog ended.

"Oooh, so does that mean Lastation is the most advanced compared to the other landmasses?" Neptune asked curiously, as she sat besides IF on one of the beds inside the room.

IF nodded, then Neptune tilted her head in confusion.

"But why? Why don't they just working together and improved everything together?" Neptune asked curiously.

Twitched in annoyance, IF glared at Neptune. "They are enemies. They hated each other for god knows how long. It was their hatred for each other that brought the Console War, a war that lasted for thousands of years." IF explained.

"But it's over, right?" Neptune asked. "Then why don't just become friends?"

"It's not that simple, you idiot." IF said, narrowing her eyes, before widening them when she felt her phone vibrated.

Looking down, she founded a message from Chian, their client.

Opening the message, she reads it, then nodded. "It looks like Chian wanted us to meet her in her factory." IF said before looking at Neptune. "Pick up Compa, and meet me at the lobby, I'll get there in minutes." IF demanded, before stands up, closed her phone and put it in it's holster.

"Okay." Neptune nodded before standing up and dashed to the door and exited the room.

* * *

After sveral minutes of searching, the party finally found Chian's factory in the central city, according to the map they recieved.

Knocking the door for several times, they didn't get a reply, so they decided to come in.

"Excuse me." IF said as she slowly opened the door.

When the door opened the party was greeted by the sight of Chian's busy factory, with many workers stationed in their respective place.

"This is Chian's company...?" Neptune asked to no one in particular as she looked aroumd at the machines and other factory things around them.

As they walked around the interior, Chian spotted them in the distant, and quickly approached them.

"There you ladies are. It's nothing lavish, I know. It's just a small factory." Chian said as she looked at Neptune who still looked around her. "We make everything from kitchenware to missiles." she explained before gestures her head to the back. "Come in. Let's get cozy before we talk."

They followed Chian to the back of the factory where Chian opened a door leading to a room which possibly be a restaurant.

The room has many wooden tables accompanied by many wooden chairs, while in the front there's a counter with six blue colored bar stools in front of it, and two wooden and metal cabinets next to it.

"Sit anywhere you like. This is my home." Chian said as she pulled out one of the wooden chair from below one of the tables and sits on it.

"Cool!" Neptune exclaimed as she flopped into one of the bar stools. "Dibs on the barstool! It's so neat having a restaurant next to your office. You can drink what ever you want!" Neptune cheerfuly said while spinning around the round chair.

"Yeah." Chian nodded. "Since it's my house. Having one business isn't enough for living expenses, so my mother helps me around here." after Compa and IF take their seats, she continued. "I really did have to get two jobs at Lastation. There's just not enough work since Avenir was established." she said with a serious expression.

Frowning Neptune looked at Chian. "So Avenir IS bad right!" she exclaimed. "Everyone in town, including you, is suffering because of them, right?" She asked while glaring at Chian.

"They're not just 'bad!' They took all of our clients..." Chian gritted her teeth and clenching her fist. "They're monsters!" she yelled before sighing and calmed herself down. "Even the goddess and her Basilicom turn a blind eye and let them do whatever they want." she muttered while looking away. "They'll eventually take over this entire landmass if we don't do anything about it." she muttered again.

With a determined look on her face, Neptune clenched both of her fist and brings them up in front of her little shoulders. "As I suspected!" she looked at IF and Compa who was looking at her back. "Lastation won't find peace with Avenir around. We gotta defeat them!"

"What should we do? It's not gonna be as easy as it sounds. How do we 'defeat' an entire company, anyway?" Compa asked with a worried tone.

"...We won't go down easily. Plus, we got the Technology Expo this year." Chian said smiling as she crossed her arms.

Compa tilted her head in confusion"What's that? Is it like a festival?" Compa curiously asked.

IF eyes widened when she realized something. "Oh, you two have never been to Lastation, right? I'm sorry, but can you explain?" she asked Chian who nodded at the request.

"Explaining a worldview or culture can't really be avoided in RPG's story." Chian chukled a little. "It might be a boring narrative, but bear with me." she take a deep breath.

"The Expo takes place in Lastation every four years. Various companies showcase new technologies under a common theme." Chian explained. "It's for people to network, or exchange information and skills. The best item gets a trophy from Lastation's CPU!" she explained in detail.

"A trophy? What an achivement!" Compa exclaimed, before tilted her head in confusion. "So, can we take down Avenir with a trophy?" Compa asked and Chian chuckled at the question.

"We'll aim for the goddess." She answered. "We'll showcase at the expo, win, and meet with her for negotiation!" Chian said with a lot of confidence.

"I see. Then, you've got your work cut out for you. It'll be really tough." Compa commented.

"Sure." Chian nodded. "I need to begin making arrangements. I actually asked you here today to discuss just that." she said while looking at the three respectively.

Neptune however quickly shook her head in disagreement. "Nope, we won't cosign any of your loans."

And with that, Chian burst out into laughter. "It's not about money. We need to transfer tools and materials, but the monsters are still..." she paused before letting out a soft sigh. "We'd risk our lives for a single screw! I'm just warnin' you, but we'll probably be asking for your help more often."

Neptune made an 'oh' expression and nodded. "Ah, I getcha. You want us to make sure you don't get distracted by monsters while prepping for the expo, right?" she asked while looking at Chian.

Chian smiled then nodded. "You're right! I'm glad you're such a little thinker. I'm counting on you." she gave Neptune an encouraging look. "Oh, and since we were here, why don't I treat you all with something good to eat?"

The party immediedly stared at her in shock with eyes wide open. "F-For real? I-I mean we don't want to trouble you."

Chian waved her hand as she smiled. "No need to be nerveous, think about it as an extra reward for your hardwork later." She said before walked through the door leading into a kitchen.

"I like her, she's so generous." Neptune hapily muttered as she looked at the door leading to the kitchen.

"I agree." IF said while nodded in agreement.

* * *

Several minutes later...

"Coming right up!" Chian voice was heard from the kitchen, before the door finally opens with Chian carrying a tray full with a lot of foods, like a burger, a soup, and of course, puddings. "There you go." She placed the tray on the table where the party sits down.

"Wow, they looks delicious." Neptune muttered with water coming out from her out.

"Are you gonna eat with us?" Compa nicely asked Chian.

And Chian shook her head. "Nah, I'll past."

"Okay, thanks for the food!" With that, everyone digs in.

Neptune takes the burger and take a big bite on it. "Urmghburg! Sofderifosh! *gulp* ...Ah, Chian, this burger is jaw dropping!" She commented before continued to eat.

"This soup is so tasty! I feel all warm inside." Compa also commented while smiling brightly at the tastyness.

"It's my mother's pride menu." she answered while smiling proudly. "Happy to know you're all enjoying it."

They all continued to eat their foods. Until, something wrong happened.

Neptune suddenly stopped eating her food as she felt something inside her mouth, something that she hasn't taste for many years, something that she hated the most in the entire world.

Sticking her hand inside her mouth, Neptune pulled out a fleshy looking vegtables that quickly made her jerked in surprised when she sees it, dropping the thing on her plate.

"Nep-Nep? What's wrong?" Compa asked in concern, while her friends just staring at Neptune.

"C-Chian... what did you put... in this?" Neptune asked the blue haired woman nerveously, making Chian confused.

"Well, we put some carrots, potatos, eggplants..." Chian trailed off when she saw Neptune become pale before suddenly screamed, stuck her tongue out and clawing at it.

"Gaah! Eggplant! Gross!" Neptune screamed. "Bleh... whoever the one who put these eggplants, they deserve to die!" she dramatically said as she glared at Chian.

"Nep-Nep, you don't like eggplants?" Compa decided to ask.

"Don't like? More like hate!" Neptune shivered at the thought of almost eated one of them. "How can you eat these purple husk, Compa?" she asked Compa with curiosity.

Suddenly, IF stands up from her seat and walked to Neptune. "Nep, you're not a small kid. Stop being picky and eat."

"What are you sayying, Iffy?!" Neptune asked with a glare to IF's eyes. "Forcing food can sometimes be dangerous! If my delicate body ate these..." she bacame pale at the thought. "Oh, the horrors, the HORRORS!" she muttered while shivering.

"Oh, for goodness sake, just EAT!" IF grabbed the eggplants on the plate with her right hand, while her left hand grabbed Neptune's mouth and forced them to open, wasted no time to shoved the eggplants inside it.

"Urm?! I-Iffy, st-sto... urm!" Neptune struggled to break free from IF's grip, but IF's has proven to be more powerfull than she thought.

"Hey, if I remembered, food sometimes help jog memories. Maybe this eggplant can jog your memory." IF said before pushed the eggplant futher into Neptune's throat.

"Urghmurgh! I-Iffy please...st...op..." Sadly for Neptune, her struggle were useless, since she has no other choice but to swallow the eggplant, otherwise she would get choked to death.

"I hope we're not too loud in here." Compa muttered with Chian nodded in agreement.

After a few moments later, the eggplant finally get swallowed by Neptune.

Right after IF released her grip on the shorter girl, Neptune immediedly fell into the floor, coughing. "How... mean Iffy!" she cried out while giving her friend a teary eyes. "You never know how much I- urk!" Neptune covered her mouth as she felt the need to vomit.

"The bathroom is right there." Chian said while pointed at the direction where the bathroom was.

After hearing that, Neptune wasted no time to stands up and headed towards the direction. Finding the bathroom, she entered it, afterwards a loud vomit sound was heard.

After hearing the sound, Compa glared at IF. "Iffy, I think you went too far." she said with a serious tone. "Make sure to apologize to Nep-Nep later."

"Yeah yeah, I know, I will apologize later." IF said while waving her hand, before crossing her arms. "Still, I wonder why she hates them that much."

"Well, all I know is it could be beacuse of a traumatic expirience, or just by nature." Compa shrugged.

Back in the bathroom, after done with the throw up. Neptune exited the bathroom with her entire body shaking, a hand was placed on her tummy.

"Ugh... I think I don't wanna eat anything for three days." Neptune muttered as she dragged herself back into the room, before sitting down on a chair with her head rested on top of the table, looking absolutely miserable.

Letting out a sigh, IF turned to look at Chian. "I have an idea." the party all looked at IF with curiousity. "How about if we doing some work for Avenir?" After she said that, everyone jerked in surprise.

"What?!" Neptune yelled, quickly regained her stamina by just hearing those sentences. "They're the bad guys! No way, no how am I going to work for them." Neptune protested.

"Wait... that's a great idea..." Chian muttered.

"What do you mean?" Compa asked curiously.

"Avenir must have problems getting materials like me, too." Chian answered with a serious expression.

"So, depending on the work, we might find out what are they going to exhibit." IF continued, crossing her arms.

Groaned, Neptune sighed. "Hmm... still, it doesn't feel right." she muttered softly.

Sighing, IF shook her head. "Well, I don't like Avenir either, but it's good to know who we're up against." If said hoping to lift Neptune unwillingness.

"Let's just bear sit it, Nep-Nep." Compa said while offering Neptune a smile.

Sighing in defeat, Neptune finally nodded. "Hmm... well, if you say so, Compa."

* * *

It was after several hours later that the party excuse themselves, saying goodbye to Chian, then leave the company.

"Nep-Nep," Compa began, Neptune who was walking besides her turned to looked at them.

"What's up?" She asked while tiIted her head.

"I forgot to ask this when we were back at the restaurant. But why did you so hate eggplants?" Compa asked, which made also IF looked at them.

"That's because they're EVIL! They're disgusting, abomination, not fit for human consumption, yada yada yada." She said while having a pale looking face.

"No, what I mean is like do you have some kind of personal vandetta or traumatic experience that involves them?" Compa asked, smiling nerveously.

"Personal vandetta? Traumatic experience?" Neptune narrowed her eyes, with her hand tapping her chin. "I think... I have... but..." Suddenly something flashed in her mind along with a headache. "Ugh!" Instantly, she clutched her head with her hand, gritted her teeth, and screw her eyes shut, while hissed in pain.

"Nep-Nep!" Compa cried out, grabbed her friend and shook her. "Hey, are you okay?" Compa asked with concern, while IF just staring at them.

After a few moments, the pain was finally gone. Sighing in relief, Neptune shook her head. "Yes, I'm fine. It's just, something flashed in my mind." Neptune answered.

"Something flashed? Could it be... your memory?" Compa asked, and Neptune shook her head.

"I'm not sure."

"So the eggplants DID jog her memory." IF muttered before decided to ask. "What did you see?" She asked curiously.

"I... I don't know if this is right, but, I think I saw a farm." Neptune answered while trying to recall the flashes.

"A farm?" Compa asked, titled hear head in confusion.

Neptune nodded. "Yes, a farm." she gulped. "An eggplant farm." she said while fighting the urge to throw up.

"An eggplant farm..." IF muttered, closing hwr eyes as she thinking. A moment later, she opens it. "It's Planeptune then."

"Planeptune?" Compa asked.

"When I was a child, my parents told me that long time ago, before the monsters appear, before CPU Purple Heart passed away. Planeptune was famous with it's high quality eggplant that other landmasses can't produce." IF explained. "It was unknown why the eggplants that comes from Planeptune was the best, compared to the other landmasses, but people believes that it was because of the purple colour that matches with landmass theme was the reason." IF said.

"Oh, so that's why Planeptune was the biggest eggplant producer in the world." Compa muttered and IF nodded.

"Urk, these conversation about eggplants makes me wanted to puke." Neptune muttered while grabbing her stomach.

"That aside," Compa turned to looked at IF. "Did you already contacted the company, Iffy?" She asked.

"Yes." IF nodded "I already make an appointment with them, and now their president, Mr. Singe, wanted us to meet him tomorrow morning." IF said while looking down at her phone.

"Tomorow morning?" Compa asked again while tilted her head.

"Yes, apparently they wanted us to extreminate the monsters that surounded one of their facility." IF said, still looking at her phone.

With nothing to do, the party returned to the hotel, getting prepared for tomorow work.

* * *

Tomorow morning...

Neptune and the party arrived at the destination, which was a clearing in the middle of a forest.

"Though it's quite unfortunate, let's start working for Avenir..." Neptune muttered, an annoyed look on her face.

"Please don't say that out loud." IF demanded, arms crossed while frowing.

"Nep-Nep really doesn't have zipper for her mouth..." Compa muttered, smiling awkwardly to her friends.

"I mean, come on, we were supposed to be a hero, a hero fight the bad guys, not working for them." Neptune protested again.

IF's frown increased as she heard that. "Idealism won't feed us. You'll never be an adult if you're always picky about food or work." hearing a distant footsteps, IF turned her head to the left to saw a man approaching them. "There's our client."

Their client was a tall man with black hair and eyes, with his hair are combed back. He wears a white shirt underneath a pink colored suit with multiples red stripes, with gold buttons. He also wears a blue tie, a white pants, and black shoes.

"..."

As they facing each other, the man examined the party, looking at them, one by one, without any words coming out from his mouth.

To broke the unnerving feeling that surrounds them, Compa decided to be the one who spoke up.

"Hello, Mr. Singe of Avenir. We're Compa, Nep-Nep, and Iffy. We've come to fight monsters!" Compa said while trying to form a smile, and a happy face.

But the man ignored the greeting, and instead choose to keep silent, and didn't say anything.

After about one and a half minute, the man sighed and turned around, ready to walked away.

"...I don't have a choice. I need you to eliminate all the surrounding monsters while I inspect a plant by the city outskirts." The man finally talk, although, his voice was cold, almost heartless and more robotic. "Don't let any run loose and cause damage to the facility. Get moving." And with that last sentence, he walked away silently.

After he left, Compa's smile turned into a frown. "What's his problem? He must be underestimating us because of our looks. How rude!" Compa complained, hoping that the man was far enough to not hear her complaining.

"It's inevitable when you or Nep are around." IF commented, which quickly made Compa snap.

"Iffy, you're not the one to talk when you're that short..." Compa said while glaring at IF, before looking down to her chest. "And without boobies." and that last sentence are also made IF snap and was about to retaliate, when Neptune came and stand between them.

"Hey hey, don't fight with each other, we are wasting time here!" she said, hoping to calmed down their anger.

After they stopped glaring, Neptune sighed in relief.

"Let's just finish this quest first, and you two can continue when we're done, okay?" The two nodded. "Sweet, let's go!"

As they going deeper into the forest, the party founded that the monsters were too many, and they're all scattered around the forest.

"This will take a very long time if we do it together." IF muttered, before looking back at her friends. "We need to split up in order to finish this as quickly as possible. After you done, we meet up in that meeting place again, okay?"

Her companions nodded, and the party split up.

* * *

"There, all done! I don't see any more monsters." Neptune said, smiling hapiliy at the amount of monsters she killed, her companions soon joined her in the meeting place.

"Nope. I'm certain the rest ran away. That's all for today!" Compa said hapiliy, wiped out the sweat in her forehead.

A moment later, a sounds of steps was heard, and the party saw the man who was their client, approaching them. "The inspection is complete. Are you kids done, too? you sure didn't miss any?" he asked, still in a cold-hearted tone.

"It's all good when I'm on the prowl! We even took out the boss-like one, so I betcha they will stay away for a while." Neptune said, smiling proudly while putting her hands on her hips.

"Good." the man nodded. "However," suddenly, his face become stern "If even one remains and it damages the facility, we will never conduct business with you again." he said coldly.

"Th-That's a bit harsh. Why can't you just repair the damage if that happens?" Compa nervously asked as she could feel the unerving feeling again.

"You have no idea, do you?" he suddenly asked in a stern tone. "Mere humans should never degree machinery!" he pointed out. "Have you ever seen a human as detail-oriented or precise as a machine?" he asked while glaring at Compa.

"I-I don't know... I'm not a machine." Compa replied, her eyes begin to tear up.

"Right. You're just an incompetent human. Who knows when you'll make a mistake? Being a human is no excuse for errors!" he pointed out, still glaring at Compa. "If humans are expected to make a mistakes. I'd rather machines do the job from the very start." turned around, he walked away. "Keep that in mind the next time you take a job from this company."

As the man left the scenery, Compa was now crying.

"Wh-Wh-What did I do to get yelled at? Did I really say something bad?" she asked, while wiping out her tears.

"Don't cry. You didn't do anything. That was pretty immature of him, yelled at three pretty girls like that." IF said with an angry face, while crossing her arms.

"M-Maybe he thought... I was making fun of machines..."

"But he's mocking humanity!"

"Come on, Compa, don't cry, he was just being a big meanie because he's such an idiot." Neptune said while putting a hand on Compa's shoulder. "I mean, if human's were expected to make mistakes, just like he said, then who's going to make the machines, then?"

After Compa calmed down, IF looked at the time on her phone. "Now that we're done here, let's go back to Chian." her companions nodded, and they headed to Passe.

To be Continued...


	11. News and A Mysterious Stalker

As the party headed towards Chian's company. They walked through an alley between two giant buildings, in Lastation central city.

Walking down the alley, they were halfway to the other side when suddenly, IF, who was busy with her phone, suddenly stopped walking.

"Huh? Ugh... useless!" she screamed at her own phone.

"Iffy, why're you screaming at your cell phone?" Compa decided to ask about what wad bothering her friend.

"Oh. I was watching a TV show on it, but the connection got cut." IF explained as she looked up at Compa. "Probably because I'm behind this ridiculously tall building." she muttered while looking at the tall building in her left side.

"Maybe. That happens to me now and then, too." Compa said, while looking at the building aswell.

"Wait." IF realized something. "Doesn't this building belong to that major game company?" she asked to no one in particular.

"Hmm... I just started playin' games, but I'm already a fan of these guys!" Neptune said as she looked at the building aswell.

"Oh, you started playing?" Compa asked curiously. "What kind of games are you enjoying the most?"

"Well, I mean, I haven't played a lot, but I like those first-person action games." Neptune answered while putting her hand on her chin. "It's so hectic and boom and crazy! I end up under a big rock all the time, though..." she said cheerfully.

"If it's this company. I like the golfing game made for everybody." Compa said. "It's so fun!"

"Gaming is popular these days, even though the world is in ruins." IF muttered while closing her phone and crossed her arms.

"Well, It's a road everyone's gotta take at some point." Neptune said. "Oh, that reminds me." She looked at IF and give her a surprised look. "What the heck?! You can watch TV on your phone?!" she asked in surprised tone.

Giving her friend a combination of an annoyed and confusion look, IF said. "...What era are you from, again?"

* * *

The party entered Chian's factory, only this time, they entered through the restaurant entrence instead of the factory one that they used before.

"Hiya!" Neptune greeted, as she saw Chian sitting on one of the wooden chairs. "Aw, I feel so at home... This dirty counter, the small, confined rooms... The smell of food baked into the walls!" she loudly muttered as she entered the room.

"Shut up!" Chian yelled, annoyed with Neptune's antics. As the party sit down, she decided to ask. "Did you meet Singe? What did you think? Isn't he horrible?" she asked while giving them a serious look.

Neptune replied with nodding rapidly. "Yeah! He made Compa cry with his machinery lecture. He's a total creepazoid!" she exclaimed in an angry tone.

"Oh, yeah, I expected as much. He's entirely against manual labor." Chian said while nodded.

"You've met him before?" Neptune asked curiously.

"Naturally." She replied. "He represents that whole company. He's also one of my old schol's alumnus." she continued. "I saw him when he came to lecture a class. I bet he just prattled on about how precise machines are and whatnot." Chian explained.

"Hah. Yeah he did! With that ominous, gruff voice!" Neptune answered with a nod.

"He doesn't approve of any technician's skills or pride. I despise him, but that's not the only reason." she explained, before looking at them. "But enough of that. Let's talk about getting you girls another job." she said as she pulled a paper from inside her pocket. "I need you to go to the next town and get some materials from Chevre." she then handed the paper to the party. "Here, It's the map to his shop."

_"...Broadcasting public information from the Basilicom."_

A nearby radio on the counter said, getting everyone attention.

" _After discussions amongst the Basilicom representatives. The Tech Expo has been cancelled this year."_

"What?! Wait a sec!" Chian exclaimed while standing up from her seat.

 _"The Sanctuary announced this is due to a decreased number of exhibitors. However, the civil committee speculates that_ _the parliament may have pressured the Sanctuary into the cancellation of this traditional event..."_

"Are you kidding me? We can't afford to wait four more years! By then, all the factories will be long gone!" she yelled while slamming her hand to the table.

Shocked by this, Neptune stands up aswell. "Whoa, Chian, calm down!" she said, trying to calmed down the angered woman.

"This was probably the last chance my factory had...!" Chian muttered under her breath, holding her anger.

"W-W-What should we do, Iffy?" Compa panicly asked her brown-haired friend, as the two stands up aswell.

"I think we should leave her." IF said, backing away a little bit before walked to the exit, followed by Compa and Neptune, leaving the depressed Chian alone.

* * *

"Oh, no, what should we do about the job we accepted from Ms. Chian? We already have the map..." Compa muttered as the party walked around the central city.

"Just give her some time alone. We'll come back later." IF said before stopped in her tracks and turned around to looked at her friends. "Anyway..."

"Excuse me... Excuse me..." before IF could start talking, an eldery woman approached them. "Excuse me, young ladies, but if you have time, may I asked you a few questions? Please?" The lady begged.

"A few questions?" IF asked as she raised an eyebrow. "Sure... what is it?"

"Thank you, but, have you ever see my child?" the lady asked. "My child were missing two days ago, I've been searching all over the city to find him, but couldn't, so I tried to asked some people, but they didn't know where he is." the old lady explained. "Do you know where he is?"

"Uh..." IF tilted her head in confusion, then she think. "I'm sorry lady, but we're bus-"

"How is your kid looked like?" Compa suddenly asked the lady, inturrepted IF.

"Hey! We don't-" IF was about to said, but her words were ignored by both Compa nad the lady.

"If we know how your child looked like, we might find him." Compa said while smiling at the lady.

"You're gonna go find my child? Oh, thank you very much, beautiful young lady." And so the lady proceed to explain everything in details.

IF letting out a sigh then closed her eyes, an annoyed look on her face.

"Sure, just ignore me." she muttered while letting out a huff, Neptune patted her shoulder for several times to calm her down.

* * *

"We don't have a single clue regarding the Key Fragment. Why would you take a job about a lost child on top of this?!" IF protested to Compa, and yet she still follows her friends into the entrance of the cave where the child they're looking for were last spotted.

"We'll never save the world if we don't save its people!" Compa protested back to her. "My granpa said, 'you must learn to walk before you can run!'" she explained. "The mom looked worried. There are so many nasty creatures outside of town. Her child will be eaten if we don't hurry!" she said as she was now standing in front of the entrance.

"So what? Babies get eaten all the time. It's survival of the fittest." IF heartlessly said, while closing her eyes and crossed her arms. Letting out a defeated sigh, she entered the cave firts. "I'll leave you behind if you keep dilly-dallying."

"Aw, don't be a pooper-scooper. I'll buy you some lollipops later! " Neptune said, before followed IF, looking behind, she looked at Compa. "By the way. What's this kid look like?"

"Hmm..." Compa put her hand on her chin as she thinks. "The mom said that his body is just an NPC silhouette, so he should be pretty easy to spot." she explained while smiling.

"Ah, I see." Neptune awkwarldy replied, while nodding and smiling.

* * *

Just as suspected by the party, the cave they entered was yet another monsters filled dungeon.

The party however, noticed that unlike the other dungeons they entered so far, this cave has less monsters in it compared to the other caves.

"Strange, I thought there would be at least fifty or more of them in here." Neptune muttered as she looked at the monsters, roaming around the cave.

"Maybe they just came here recently." IF guessed. "Or, maybe someone elses has been exterminating them, besides us." she guessed again.

Neptune looked at IF in confusion. "Does that mean killing monsters has become a job or something?" Neptune asked in confusion.

IF nodded at her. "Yes, and it was the common job all around the world, with high prices compared to any othet job." IF answered, before looking at the monsters. "We can continue to talk about this later. Right now, let's found this kid then continue our search for the key fragment." IF said while pulled out her katars.

"Yeah." Neptune nodded, take out her handgun and reload it's amunition.

"Oh," IF looked at Neptune with a stern look. "Don't be so reckless like what you did before." she said with an annoyance in her voice.

"Okie-dokie." She replied with a bright smile.

With things ready the girls rushed in. Using her masive syringe, Compa used it for both range and close range attack to try injuring a bird like creature, but it's feathers were made out of metal, and there's a red mohawk on top of it's head.

Meanwhile, IF was dealing with a giant muscular humanoid creature that has grey colored skin, wearing a big helmet on it's head, a gaunlet on it's left hand, and wielding a giant ax in it's right hand.

In the other hand, using her handgun with her right hand, Neptune shooted a bunch of plant-class creatures, while using her sword with her left hand to slashed at them who managed to avoid her shots and approached her.

The girls were getting the upper hand against the monsters, until, a loud roar was heard, and the three quickly looked at the source of the roar, which turns out to be a giant wolf-like creature with blue colored fur, blood red eyes, big white claws, with four black gauntlets on each of it's legs.

"It's a Fenrir." IF said as she looked at the creature.

"That was it's name?" Compa asked and IF nodded.

"Well, whatever it's name, I'm gonna nep it up!" Neptune said before running towards the giant wolf.

"Again?" IF letting out a sigh of frustration before followed Neptune along with Compa.

Pulling out her hand gun, Neptune quickly switched the current bullets into fire elemented bullets. After she's done, she fires it at the Fenrir, but the Fenrir has a high durability that it can witstand the bullets like it was nothing for it.

When she realized this, Neptune put away her handgun and choose to use her sword.

But before she was close to the creature, the Fenrir leaped forward, attempted to grab her, but Neptune quickly slide to avoid it, sliding between the beast's front legs, she used her sword to scratch it's underside, angered the the beast by doing so.

IF was about to leap forward and attack the Fenrir face with her katars, but the giant wolf quickly letting out a load roar that paralyzed the party for a moment.

Using this chance, the beast using it's giant claws to land a successful hit on IF, sending the girl flying backwards and crashed into a nearby wall.

"Iffy!" Compa cried out as she saw her friend flying towards the wall.

Because Compa was distracted, the Fenrir leaned forward and atempted to bite Compa with it's mouth, but luckly, Neptune countered the attack by using her sword, then used this opportunity to take out her handgun and aimed at the beast red eye.

Gunshot rang in the cave, accompanied by a loud pained roar, as the beast quickly retreat, after it's left eye has been shot.

"Compa, we need to focus, don't worry about Iffy, she's fine, she's pretty tough after all." Neptune said while still looking at the beast who was shuddered in pain.

Compa nodded, and soon the girls were joined by IF who was looking pretty much fine.

"Nice shot, Nep. But we need to finnish this quickly." IF complimented bofore pulled out her katars again.

"Are you gonna use those magic attacks again?" Neptune asked and IF nodded at her before stepping forward.

"Alright, round two. Let's go!" Running towards the beast again, this time Neptune tried different tricks.

When she was getting close to the Fenrir, the wolf tried to claw Neptune, but she quickly dodge it by rolling to the left. When the Fenrir was about to turn and face Neptune however, IF pulled out her handgun and shots several bullets at the Fenrir to get it's attention, but when the Fenrir turns it's attention to IF, Neptune also pulled out her handgun and shooted the Fenrir on it's blind spot.

Confused about who the one it needs to pay attention to, the Fenrir choose to release a loud roar. But since the party was now ready, they quckly cover their ears to avoid being paralyzed again.

"Compa! Now!" IF called out and Compa nodded, released her hands from her ears when she finally get used to the loud roar.

While running towards the beast, Compa brings her gigantic syringe above her head, and when the distance between her and the Fenrir was relatively close, she brings the syringe down, aimed at the Fenrir still opened mouth.

"Compa's Love Heart!" Compa yelled as she pushed the punger of the syringe, a big pink colored heart appeared on the tip of the neddle, and when the plunger tip touched the end of the syringe tube, the giant heart flung directly towards the Fenrir's mouth that begining to close.

But the speed of the heart was fast enough for it to entered the Fenrir's mouth, just in time before it's closed.

After the beast accidently swallowed it, an explosion happened inside it's belly, injuring the beast from the inside.

"Now's the time." IF said while running towards the beast. "La Delphinus!" a white circle rune appeared below the Fenrir, before a massive pillar of light appeard and engulfing the Fenrir, finally killing it.

"Whew, that was pretty tough!" Neptune said, while wiping the sweat on her forehead.

"Knowing a tough monster such as this Fenrir, is probably a sign that the kid might already dead. We were wasting time here." IF complained while putting her weapons away.

"Iffy, don't be heartless. If you keep going like this, no one will likes you." Neptune teased. "Besides, look at how much money and experience that we got."

IF face-palmed when she hears that. "Nep, this is a _story_ , not the game! If this was the game then I don't mind we were doing this!" she complained.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever, let's go Compa." Ignoring IF complains, Neptune proceed to go deeper into the cave.

"O-Okay, wait for me."

IF twitched before letting out a sigh of frustration and annoyance. "Sure, just ignore me and do whatever you want."

Knowing that complaining wouldn't lead her anywhere, she decided to surrender and followed her companions.

* * *

Strange enough, the more they go deeper into the cave, the more rarer they encounter a monster, the cave has now become silent, without any noises that monsters usually create.

After a few minutes of exploring without encountering a single monster, the party finally encountered a giant dragon, but it was dead, and the body didn't get dematerialized, meaning that it has been slayed not too long ago.

"An Ancient Dragon... It's already dead. The corpse's still here, meaning that it has been slayed recently." IF said as she observed the corpse.

"So someone was indeed already been here before us, huh?" Neptune asked while circling around the corpse, inspecting it.

"But who was strong enough to defead this dragon? Is there any other people that powerful as us?" Compa asked confusingly.

"There are, but not much. We were born with these power because of miracles that the landmasses where we were born from, bestow us. The chances are very low" IF explained before continued her inspection. "...A clean cut and a huge welt. Doesn't look like any weapory from Lastation." she muttered as she looked at the injuries closely. "Leanbox or Lowee's advanced weaponry? No... but what...?" Suddenly, she felt a wind blowing through her hair, and she could sense that there was something that comes with it. "Huh? Someone's coming!"

When she turns around, she was greeted with a person with glowing cyan colored eyes, landing not too far in front of her, she has a white hair that goes down to below her shoulders, somewhat with her fringe standing above her eyes and bangs caressing her face. She wears a black and white suit with a mechanical appearance, with the suit exposes a mild amount of her cleavage. Her sleeves are pure black, with silver patches in the bicep and tricep area, her gauntlets are black with silver protrusions on the knuckle. And on her back, there were six long blue colored thing that acts like a wings, three in each side of her back.

"A civilian? What are you doing out here?" The mysterious person asked, as she looked at IF with a surprised look.

"R-Right back at ya!" Backing away a little bit, she decided to asked the person. "Who're you? What're you doing here?"

"The kid. I came here to save a child." She answered while looking at IF with suspicion. "It's taken care of. But I don't need to be thanked." The person looked around the room before asking again. "Anyway, there was supposed to be a girl who accepted the same job. Her name's Neptune. You know her?"

IF jerked in surprise when she heard that question, backing away a bit more. At the same time, the dragon corpse behind her finally get dematerialized, revealing Neptune and Compa that was behind it all along.

Time feels like been slowed down, when the person turned her head to looked at Neptune, and Neptune do the same.

When the two made eye contact, the person's face becomes pale, an absolute dread was on her face. While for Neptune, her face becomes bright, with her eyes shining in amazement.

"No... way..." the person whispered quietly.

Neptune approached the two and when she got there, she was looking at the mysterious person from head to feet. "Whoa, what's happening? She's so coolios!" she exclaimed excitedly before looking at IF "Do you know her, Iffy?"

IF quickly shook her head, still backing away. "No. She's your friend or something, right?" she looked at the person who was still staring at Neptune with both dread and shock. "She knows your name at least. She's... looking for you." IF explained.

Neptune tilted her head in confusion as she heard that. "Huh? I don't think I've met her before." she tries to approach her, but the person quickly backed away like she was scared of her. "I'm sorry, have we?" Neptune asked.

The woman shook her head suddenly, and the looks of dread and shock on her face was replaced by a look of anger and hatred. "Back off!" she yelled before a giant long black and blue colored sword materialized in her hand.

The woman then used the sword to try to slashed at Neptune, but Neptune quickly dodged it by backing away before it hits her. "W-Whoa! Wh-What is your problem?" Neptune asked.

"My problem is YOU! You think I'm just here to say 'hi?'" She asked with an anger in tone. "To think that you could escape the jaws of death, you are very persistent." She swung her sword to the side. "No matter, I'll shall be the one that sends you back to hell." And with that, she flies with high speed towards Neptune "Let's settle this, Neptune!"

Sensing danger, Neptune quickly pulled out her sword and used it to block an attack that the woman delivered.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Chill out lady!" As the woman continue to deliver more and more attacks, Neptune blocked all of it as best as she could. "What do you mean I'm YOUR problem? Did I do something to you? Did I steal your puddings?"

"Shut up! And just DIE! Paralyze Fencer!" the woman yelled before doing a rush attack that Neptune couldn't counter, and ended up getting hit on the shoulders and she was unable to move.

"Ugh!" Neptune tried to move, but she couldn't. "I knew I should've asked Chian if she have some Paralixin back in her store!" Neptune complained, but she knew that complaining is useless in this situation.

"Now die!" the woman pointed Neptune with her sword. "Lace Ribbon Da-"

"Compa's Love Heart!" Before the woman could finnish her sentence, Compa shoted the same giant pink heart to the woman's back, exploded when made contact, taking the person by surprised.

While she was still shocked with that, IF used the opportunity to grabbed Neptune and throw her away. "Demonic Inferno!" IF yelled as she extended her burning right hand towards the person. A few little explosion appeared around the person, before a giant flame burst out of the ground and engulfed the woman.

As she approached the still paralyzed Neptune, Compa put her hand on her shoulder. "Compa's Denumb!" a soft green light covered Neptune, and the paralysis effects is gone.

"Whew, thanks Compa." Neptune smiled before stands up.

"Geez, seriously, what the hell is her problem with you?" IF asked while looking at Neptune.

"I-I don't know! She's just-"

"VOLCANO DIVE!" The woman who was now high in the air yelled, before launching herself towards the girls who wasn't prepared. With her swords in hand, she slammed it to the ground making a giant crater, accompanied by a wave of flames that sends the girls flying, before crushing againts the walls.

As she slid down the wall to the ground, Neptune coughed softly. "Man, she's... really tough!"

"We need a better plan." IF said as she landed to the ground as well. "We need to attack her together, and if we have the chance, we use our magic attacks again." IF explained as she looked to the woman who was floating above the ground and slowly stalked towards them.

"We managed to damage her though," Neptune said as she noticed the bruise and cuts on the lady's skin. "Which means we need to do that again." Neptune stands up and pulled her handgun, changing the fire bullets with light bullets.

"Yeah, let's do that again." Said IF as she stands up aswell.

"If you two don't want to die, you better leave us, now! You'll regret it if you don't do it." the woman said in the distant.

"Leave? Never! We are a party! I will never leave Nep-Nep!" Compa said as she stands up too.

The woman scoffed. "Fine, just don't blame me when that's come true." She flies to Neptune with high speed and attempted to hit her again, but the strike were successfully blocked by Neptune.

With a push, Neptune pushed the woman away from her, looking at IF and Compa the two nodded, and together they deliver a barrage of attacks that some got countered by the woman, and some were successfully hit her.

After some minutes of blocking and striking, Neptune's blade clashed with the woman's blade, when they tried to push each other, Neptune circled her blade before throwing it to the side, successfully disarmed the woman.

"Compa, Iffy, now!" Neptune yelled at her friends that was behind her.

"Right." A bright green light circling around IF's right hand as she extended it towards the Woman. "La Delphinus!" A white circle rune appeared below the woman.

"Me too! Compa's Love Heart!" pushing the plunger of her syringe, a giant pink heart appeard on front of the needle tip, and when the plunger were all pushed, it sends the heart flying towards the woman in high speed.

When the heart touched the woman it exploded, and before she could even react, the circle rune below her summoned a pillar of light that engulfed her. The woman letting out a long cry of pain that eventually stopped.

When the light faded, the woman was laying on the floor, seemingly unconscious.

"Did we beat her?" Neptune asked while panting, as the fatigue catched up. "Oh no, did we killed her?" she asked again in a worried tone.

"I don't know." IF replied, while panting aswell. As she think it was over, she sat down to relieve the fatigue. "Why don't you just check her? It looks like she's unconscious, so I think it was a safe thing to do." she said while looking at the still unresponsive woman on the ground.

"Fine." Neptune approached the woman, and when she was right in front of her, she crouched, and she doesn't hear a breathing, which made her stared at the woman in shock. "She's not breathing!" Neptune said panicly. "W-What are we gonna do? We just killed someone!" Neptune said while waving her hands up and down.

"Calm down, you idiot. Did you already checked the pulse?" IF asked while looking at Neptune with annoyance.

"P-Pulse?" Neptune asked while tilted her head in confusion.

"It's a rhythmical throbbing of the arteries as blood is propelled through them, Nep-Nep. Typically it was felt in the wrists or neck." Compa explained, while smiling.

"Ooh, so you mean I need to grab her neck or wrist to check if there was a throbbing?" Compa nodded. "Okay, then I just have to..." Neptune tried to reach the woman wrist with her hand, but before her hand could even touch it, the woman's hand suddenly moved, and it gripped Neptune's hand tightly. "Whoa, what the Nep! Let go!"

Neptune tried to break free from the woman's grip to no avail. And when her friends tried to help her. The woman quickly stands up, her sword in her right hand.

"Infinite Slash!" the woman yelled before she takes off into the air, before flying in high speeds around the party, slashed at each of them multiple times. After delivering twenty two slashed to each of them, she fly through them while giving them a final slash that hit them at once, before a big explosion appeared, that sent them flying meters away.

"Uagh!" Neptune cried out as she crashed into a wall, so hard that it made a giant crater on it. As she slid the wall to the ground, she coughed so hard that bloods coming out from her mouth. "Uuuggh..." She strugled to her feet, but before she could even stands up, the woman was in front of her, punch her in the face, so hard that it made her head jerk back.

When Neptune lose all of her strength, the woman grabbed Neptune's neck, choking her, and lift her up into the air.

Neptune strugled to break free from the woman's grip on her neck, but her current status prevent her from doing so, she could feel the air has been cut from her lungs, and her consciousness started to slipping away.

"What's the matter?" The woman asked while smirking maliciously. "Is this how you're gonna kill me?" she asked. "Your disgusting arrogance doesn't change it seems, just like your appearance." she started laughed manically. "What happen to the woman that always haunts me in my nigmares?" she asked. "What happen to the woman that wanted to have revenge, since she has died once?"

Neptune was actually couldn't hear any of the words that the woman said, as her consciousness were almost gone.

"Tch, doesn't matter, if you answer me or not." her sword materialized in her left hand. "Goodbye, Neptune, have fun in hell." and with that, she lunge her sword towards Neptune's chest.

In a brief moment before the woman's sword could even touch Neptune. A single tear fall from Neptune's eyes, Neptune cracked an eye open, and what she saw, was rather surprising.

When the two made eye contact, the woman's vision was changed, she was no longer choking Neptune with her right hand, and her left hand was no longer about to stab Neptune.

Instead, the position were changed. Now, it was her who was being choked, and was about to get stabbed in the chest with a giant burning swod.

And the one who wield the sword, and the one who was choking her, was a tall woman with long purple hair, her face was covered in shadows, but her sickening sadistic smile was still able to see.

And with that, the purple haired woman, crushed her neck, while using the burning sword to stabbed her on the chest.

Back in the real world, the woman's face become pale, sweaty, and an absolutely horrified look on her face.

Unconsciously, she released both Neptune and her sword.

As she finally free from the woman's grip, Neptune coughed hard to catch her breath, but due to her injuries, she eventually pass out.

"NEP!" A distant scream finally snaped the woman back to the real world.

When she turned her head towards IF and Compa who was running at her, she was greeted with another heart exploded right on her face, which sends her backwards.

"APPOCALYPSE NOVA!" IF screamead as she jumped high in the air before firing multiples energy needle that successfully hit the woman's and pinned her against the ground. After that, IF pulled out her kattars as she fall towards the pinned woman. "TAKE THIS!" she yelled as she stabbed the woman on her stomach, causing a masive explosion of energy to happen.

As the explosion sent the woman flying, IF put all of her energy to her right hand, and with it she slashed the woman from the distant, causing yet another explosion of energy to appear.

Beaten, and barely survived. The woman's limp body, lifted from the ground, thanks to her now damaged wings. "How... could I lose...?" she muttered weakly. "This is all... that damn... visions... fault!." as she turned around to run away, she looked back at Neptune for the final time. "Don't think... this is over yet... I crush you... next time, Neptune!" and with that, she ran away as quickly as her wings could do.

"Hey wait! Come back here!" Compa yelled while attempting to pursue her, but IF stopped her.

"Don't, Compa. We are badly injured, and who knows if she has more tricks up in her sleeves." IF said, and Compa finally calmed down. "Besides," IF looked at the unconsciousness Neptune, grimaced at how badly injured she was compared to the two. "We need to take her back to the hotel, I'm very worried about her."

"Right, then take her right, I'll carry the left." IF nodded before she puts Neptune right arm on her shoulder.

And with that, the two girls, carried Neptune out of the cave and into the hotel where they can treat her injuries.

To be Continued...


	12. Nightmare and Overlord

A grand-looking door slowly opened, and when it's fully opened, a certain black haired twintails entered the room. Her body have multiple bruises and cuts, her clothes in tatters, and she was limping, using her sword as a support.

"Lady Black Heart!" A maid screamed in shock and terror as she saw her lady in that horrible state.

As she heard somenone called her name, the ravenette, looked up to see the maid approaching her, a concerned and terrified look on her face. "You..."

"Lady Black Heart, What happen to you? Are you okay?" She asked in a cocerned tone, before the ravenette could answer it, the maid helped her. "H-Here let me guide you to your room."

Black Heart nodded as the maid take her to her room where she could recover.

As the maid laid her lady on the couch and make sure she was comfortable on it, she decided to ask again.

"So, what happen?" she asked curiously.

"I'm just get ambushed by a bunch of strong monsters, that's all." the ravenette answered while looking away.

"Goodness, are you alright?" the maid asked again.

Looking at the maid, Black Heart shook her head. "Yeah, I'm fine, thanks for asking. That aside, could you please bring me my phone? I have to call someone."

"Right away." The maid nodded before walked out of the room to find her lady's phone.

Sighed, the ravenette looked up to the ceiling, thinking about what just happen today.

'It's time.' she thought to herself.

And not long after that, the maid came back with her phone.

* * *

At the same time in one of Lastation Central City's Hotel.

Two girls who was carrying a certain unconsiousness short purple-haired girl who was bloodied and injured all over, entered the hotel room they rented a few days ago.

Once they were inside, they wasted no time to lay the injured girl into one of the beds in there.

"Iffy, can you take my bag in that corner, please?" the peach-haired one asked the brown-haired one, while pointing at the direction where her bag was.

"Right." IF nodded before walked to the corner where her friend's bag was.

While her friend goes to take the bag, the peach haired girl proceed to undress her unconscious friend to take a better look for the injuries.

"Here." IF comes with the bag in her hand, handing it to Compa.

"Thanks, Iffy." Opening the bag, Compa pulled out the stuff she needs, and began to treat Neptune's injuries.

"Her breathing is steady now, that's a good sign." IF said as she sat next to the two.

"Okay, then it's time to wrap her up with the bandages." Compa said as she pulled out a roll of bandages from her bag. "Iffy, can you help me to make sure she's not moving?" she asked her friend.

"Sure." IF nodded, and proceed to helped her friend by holding Neptune, so Compa could easily wrapped her up in bandages, making sure to not touched her injured part in the process. 'Her skin is really smooth~' IF thought as she made contact with Neptune's skin for the first time, blushing a little when thought about it.

"There, all done!" Compa exclaimed as she finished.

"Uh... Compa?" IF began. "Are you sure it's not too tight?" IF asked as she looked at Neptune's pale face, desperate to breathe.

"Uh oh, is it too tight?!" Compa's eyes were white, blank and had black circles around them. "H-Hold on! I'll go get a scissor!" Compa yelled before panicly grab her bag and search for scissor in it.

"Hurry! She wont make it any longer!"

Several minutes later.

"Whew, I'm glad that's done." Compa said as she wiped the sweat on her forehead, glad that the whole oredeal is finally over.

"But why she remains pale?" IF said, tilting her head in confusion as she looked at Neptune who remains pale and sweaty, her breathings are heavy.

"I-I don't know! What should we do, Iffy?" Compa panicly asked her brown-haired friend.

Before IF could answer her question, they hear Neptune groaned in her sleep. When they turned they turned their heads to looked at Neptune, they realized that Neptune was talking in her sleep.

"...Don't..." Neptune mumbled softly, panting, and shifted on the bedy slightly.

As Neptune continued talking in her sleep, her friends backing away slightly. "Iffy, I think Nep-Nep has a nightmare." Compa said as she looked at IF who was nodded.

"Seems like it." IF said before winced in pain, due to her worries of Neptune's health, she completely forgot that she was in pain too.

"Are you okay Iffy? You looked like in pain. Do you want me to treat you aswell?" Compa asked as she looked at IF with concern.

IF shook her head while waving her hand. "I'm fine, don't worry about me." she said, hoping to relieve Compa's concern.

The two sat there in silence, none of them making a noise except for Neptune who was still talking in her sleep.

"I wonder what Nep-Nep's dreaming." Compa muttered, getting a nod from IF.

* * *

Somewhere else...

There was a street in an unknown city, on the street, a bunch of people are running away, screaming, what was they running away from is unknown, but judging from how terrefied they're look, meaning that whatever the thing they running away from, is clearly threatening their lives.

Inside the masses of people on the street, there's two people, who, unlike the other people around them, they didn't run away. The two people are an adult man dressed in a black suit with a red tie, with his face was somehow blurry and unclear. And a little girl with short purple hair.

The purple-haired girl was clinging to the man's arm, trying to prevent him to go.

_"No, don't go! I'm already sad that mama isn't here. Please don't go! Please don't leave me!"_

Said the little girl, tears are flowing on her face, tightening her grip on the man's arm.

_"Honey, you have to let me go, I'll go find your mama. But father cannot let you come with me, please, I need you to run away, just like the other people did."_

_"No! I don't want to lose Papa, If Papa wants me to go, Papa has to come with me too."_

With his other hand, the man reach up and put it on the little girl's head, he caressed the soft purple hair of her, reached down, he wiped the tears away from his daughter face.

_"Neptune, Father will bring back your mother, she's still in our house, Father can save her, but Father want to do it alone, okay?"_

_"But-"_

_"Father promise you, Neptune. I will come back, with your mama, and then, we could start again from the begining! We could eat your mother's homemade special pudding together again! We could play video games in the living room together again! And then, we could raise your little sister together, until the two of you grows up. All you have to do, is let father go, okay?"_

After hearing those words, the little girl's grip on her father hands loosened.

_"Is that true?"_

_"Yes! It's all will come true!"_

Stepping forward, the little girl hugged her father tightly.

_"Is Papa promise to come back with Mama?"_

_"Of course."_

As he saw that the running crowd of people that passing them become fewer and fewer, the man know that it was the time.

_"Now go, follow those people to safety, Papa and Mama will join you soon."_

_"O-Okay... I-I will..."_

And with that, the two seperated.

The little girl was hoping that her father will kept his promise, to return to her with her mother, to reunite the family, to start a new live, a new life along with her unborn little sister. But sadly...

...It never happen.

* * *

"NO! DON'T LEAVE ME ALONE!" A certain purple haired girl screamed as she woke up from her nightmare. Springing up from her bed, was proven to be a fatal mistakes since she was quickly stung by an intense pain from her body. "Oww..."

"Nep-Nep!" a peach-haired girl yelled in both shock and relieve as she saw her friend has finally wake up. "Don't move too much, you're still not all well." the girl said as she approached the purplette, and gently guide her back down to rest.

"C-Compa? Is that you?" Neptune asked as she looked at the peach-haired girl.

Compa tilted her head in confusion at first, but eventually, she nodded. "Yep yep! It's your best friend Compa. Why do you ask?" Compa asked back.

"I..." Neptune tried to answer but she couldn't muster any words. "Uh, I don't know... I just... suddenly has the urge to say that."

Suddenly, the door in the other side of the room opened, and walked through it was IF, now fully healed from any injuries.

"Compa we need to- oh, you're awake." IF said as she saw Neptune, still laying on the bed, but awake. "How're you feeling?"

Neptune giggled at the question before answered it. "Its so odd that you actually worried about me." as IF frowned at the comment, Neptune giggled even more. "Yeah I'm fine, thank you for asking."

"Good." IF said before sit down on the bedside, arms crossed, and eyes on Neptune. "So, about that person that attack us yesterday. I tried to gather information about her, but no one knows who she is."

"'That person?' Oh, you mean _that_ woman? who made me like this?" Neptune asked and IF nodded.

"Yes." IF then glared at Neptune with a look of suspicion. "Seriously though, she was totally coming after you." IF said. "What did you do to her?" IF asked. "I'm sure you knew her before you lost your memory."

"I-I didn't do nothin'!" Neptune said, which making IF more suspicious. "I hope!" Neptune continued. "I can't remember..."

IF raised an eyebrow at that statement. "But did you see how angry she was towards you, to the point that she literaly tries to kill you? You must've done something really awful." IF said as she looked at Neptune who was looking down.

"I... I don't know... I just can't remember anything... I didn't even remember my parents." Neptune muttered, still looking down.

'How many crimes has this little girl has committed in her past? Did I pick the wrong person to side with...?' IF thought to herself before looking out throught the window to find that it was getting dark. Standing up, she looked at her friends "It's getting dark, let's sleep, and tomorrow, we will search for info regarding the Key Fragment."

"But Iffy, how about Nep-Nep? She's still not well." Compa complained.

"Then, just leave her here, it will not be long, so we can-"

"Wait, I'll coming too." Neptune said as she looked at her friends.

"Nep-Nep, you're recovering, it will be dangerous if you come with us." Compa complained, while looking at Neptune with concern.

"Nah, this is no big deal, it's just a scratch. I could still even run at this point." Neptune said with confidence, hoping to relieve Compa's concern.

"But-"

"Please?"

Sighing, IF nodded. "Fine, do whatever you want. Just know that if you ended up like this again, I ain't gonna help you again." IF said before walking away.

* * *

The next day in Lastation Central City...

"Nope, no info at all." Neptune said as the party regroup after they split up so they could gather information separately.

Neptune was still wearing her usual white hoodie, although the bandages are still wrapped around her body.

"Me neither." Compa said.

"So do I." IF said, crossing her arms. "This is useless, the Key Fragment must be really hidden, that all people didn't know about it." IF muttered, looking into the sky, she sighed. "Only the Basilicom knows the location of a strong monster, but we couldn't even enter the building. This is frustrating."

"Hmm... I have a question." Neptune said, her friends turning their atteantion to her. "The nice person in Planeptune Basilicom said that the Basilicom was created long, long time ago, right? Then that means there's must be some of the retired workers around here, maybe we should find them and asked them." Neptune explained.

"Retired workers?" IF asked tilted her head. A moment later, her eyes went wide when she realized something. "That's it! The heretics."

"Hereteics?" Compa tilted her head in confusion. "Heretics are those who don't believe in the Basilicom's teachings, right?" Compa asked curiously.

"Yes." IF replied with a nod "More specifically, they were kicked out of the Basilicom for worshipping another goddess." she explained.

"So the Basilicom gave 'em the boot for lavishing another goddess with attention instead of the one on their landmass?" Neptune asked, hoping her conclusion is right.

"You make it sound like a love affair..." Compa said while giving Neptune an awkward smile. "Nep-Nep, it's inappropriate to reffer to the goddess in such a way."

"Uh, sorry..." Neptune said while scratching her cheek "But whatcha gonna do after we find one of these heretic folks?" she asked curiously.

"Ask them for internal information about the Basilicom. I'm sure they'd know a lot, having been former members." IF explained while pulling out her phone.

"Yes. What we lack is information. Reasons! The Basilicom kicked us out and cancelled the Tech Expo." Compa said excitedly.

"What if they don't wanna talk to us either?" Neptune asked again.

"Then we'll threaten them with your gun, of course." IF answered, not even bother to looked at Neptune.

"Uh... okay..."

* * *

"Didja notice the number of monsters here? It's a kinda tight spot... I wonder if they're comfy." Neptune muttered as she looked at the big amount of monsters that roaming around the cave where they could find the heretics they need.

"Yes, there were more than usual. I'm a bit worried about the heretics." Compa said while nodding, pulling out her Syringe. "Let's hurry!"

Her companions nodded, pulling out their respective weapons.

"Are you sure you can fight?" IF asked Neptune who was reloading her handgun.

"Yup, I could even take out a boss monster alone even in this state." Neptune said while nodded.

"Your arrogance will eventually leads you to some serious trouble in the future, ya know?" IF asked, getting another nod from Neptune.

"Now that I remember..." Neptune began, paused for a moment before looking at her gun. "That woman who attack me, sayying something about me being arrogant or something." she muttered, finishing her reloading. "But I'll think about it later. Let's go."

Her friends nodded, and the party proceed to massacre the monsters inside the cave, while trying to find the heretics.

* * *

As they explore deeper into the cave, the party found a dead end. In there, they found a tent made out with woods and cloth, in front of the tent, there was a very old man, sitting in front of a small campfire

"So... you're Mr. Heretics?" Neptune decided to be the first one to ask the old man. "Whatcha doin' hiding in such a dark place?" she asked again.

"It's unhealthy to be away from the sun's rays entirely." Compa said before extending her hand towards the old man. "Give me your hand and I'll lead you to vitamin D!"

"Who're...? Get away. I'm not going anywhere." The old man said as she backed away from Compa like he was scared of her. "This's the only place to receive it. The messenger only knows this place." he continued.

"...This heretic must be trippin'..." IF muttered while crossing her arms.

"Mr. Heretic!" Neptune began, trying to calmed down the old man. "We're here to ask you all about Basilicoms." she said.

"...Basilicoms? Oh, okay." the heretic finally calmed down. "What's on your mind?" he asked.

"They didn't let us in and they cancelled the Tech Expo. What's up with that, man?" Neptune asked.

"...Lastation Basilicoms are practically controlled by the Parliament side. The Sanctuary end is largely ignored." he said while sitting on the place he was before. "The current Parliament listens only to the sound of coin. Well, the Sanctuary reps don't listen much, either..." he explained.

"Sanctuary? P-Parliament?" Neptune asked cunfusingly while a bunch of question marks appeared around Neptune's head. She looked at IF and asked. "Iffy, help is needed!"

"The Sanctuary serves the CPU and evangelizes. Parliament serves the CPU and governs." IF explained before looking at Neptune with a quizzical look. "Is it actually that complicated?"

"Okay, whatever." Neptune said before looking back to the heretic "So your Basilicom is a rotten egg because of the Parliament stuff?" she asked and the old man noddr.

"The Sanctuary's no different." he said. "Those fanatics have no ears to heed our warnings with. Humanity is DOOMED!" he said while trowing his hands uo into the air.

"Huh? What do you mean all humanity is doomed?" Compa asked in confusion. "Are you proffesizing the apocalypse?"

"Of course. We're all going to die at the hands of Overlord Momus." the heretic said while looking at them with a serious look. "Momus is powerful enough to even beat all of the CPUs." he continued. "He was the reason why the CPUs had to retreat to this world, to avoid his power."

"I see. Uh-huh." Neptune muttered while nodding rapidly. "I betcha that guy's the cause of every monster in the whole world!" she said while looking at her friends "What an absolute jerkwad!"

"It's hard to believe, though." Compa muttered "Is there really an Overlord more powerful than all of the goddesses?" she asked, and the old man suddenly stands up and point at her.

"See? You're the same as everyone else. They don't believe me. You must, or you'll be punished by the devine messenger!" he yelled before noticed the several dead bodies of mosnters in the distance. "You! You defeated several monsters to get here, right? You shall not escape your punishment!" he yelled again before headed towards his tent. "Leave, you foolish, generally underdeveloped adolescents!" he said before entered the tent.

"H-He's scaring me... What's gotten into him...?" Compa asked in confusion.

"L-Let's just get outta here without him. He wants to stay and I don't wanna force him to leave." Neptune said, backing away, prepared to leave. "Plus, he's very rude." the other party members nodded, and so, they leave the cave.

* * *

Once they're out in the open, Neptune decided to be the fisrt one to talk.

"Didja hear that? An overlord!" She exclaimed while bringing her hands up into the air. "That sounds so intense!"

"It's just more nonsense conjured up by that heretic." IF said while crossing her arms. "I hope he gets his comeuppance." she mottered softly.

"Well, who knows? Monsters are taking over the world and Histy's totally in captivity." Neptune said, before flopped to the ground and sitting on top of the grass.

"Oh, yeah. What if that Histy person's playing us all like kazoos?" IF asked, sitting besides Neptune and enjoying the view of a river in front of them. "She creates the monsters, lures out naive little girl wanna-be heroes like you, then, SNAP! Lures another one... then SNAP!" IF explained while using her hands to make a crocodile jaws.

"That can't be true!" Neptune protested, "Histy is a good person, she has those mother fairy-like voice, she knows about me, and she wants me to save the world!" Neptune explained while glaring at IF.

"Really? I hope she's not one of those fairy who could turn into a dragon and eat us though." IF said while glaring back at Neptune.

_"That simply is not true. I would do no such thing. Please Neptune, explain on my behalf."_

The voice sudden appearance made Neptune jumped to her feet, looking around her to find the owner of the beautiful voice.

"Histy, you're here!" Neptune exclaimed, her friends who heard her quickly turn their attentions to her. "I thought I wouldn't hear ya until I have all the fragments. Are you relaxing? You're all tied down, right?"

_"I am neither relaxing nor tied down. And about how I could contact you, it was because she wasn't around where I'm sealed, so I could use this opportunity to contact you. Please, explain to them that I am Histoire, the noble tome who records the history of the world."_

"I promise I would explain all of it to them later." Neptune said, before asked. "what's new?"

_"..."_

A pause, and then, Neptune could hear Histoire taking a deep breath.

_"I am reaching out to you to convey important plot-driving information."_

She said in a serious tone.

_"I cannot be certain how much longer I can continue communication like this. She will come to you any day now."_

"Who?" Neptune asked curiously, before remembered something from her last conversation with the voice. "Wait, Is this the 'she' that you mention in our last conversation? The one who sealed you away?" she asked.

_"...Yes, but I was unable to mutter the courage to utter her name. I still cannot treat her like a villain."_

"Is she someone you knew? An acquaintance of yours or something?" Neptune asked again with curiousity.

_"No, Not just an acquaintance, more than that, she was like a family, to me"_

Histoire said, and Neptune could hear that there was a hint of regrets and sadness in her voice.

_"Neptune, please be wary of her. She has become aware of your existence, she will try to prevent you for gathering the Key Fragments."_

"She's going after me, too? Why? Why there's many people going after my cute little self." Neptune groaned.

_"Please be careful. She is... She is..."_

And so, the communication got cut.

"...What about her? Did we get disconnected? Ugh, she should switch telepathy carries." Neptune complained before sit down on the grass again.

"I couldn't hear Histy's voice, but I think I understand what's happening from Nep-Nep's side." Compa muttetrd. "Maybe _'She'_ intercepted the communication and cut her off." Compa guessed, and Neptune nodded.

"...What if this person that Histy talking about, is the same as that Overlord Momus?" IF gussed with her friends lookinh at her. "They'd both be connected to creating the monsters."

"Hmm... Maybe? We should ask Histy about the overlord the next time she contact me." Neptune said, before her stomach grumbled. "But for now, I wanna have some puddings." Neptune muttered while patting her belly.

"I wonder what would happen if she have a day without pudding." IF muttered softly, before the party headed back to the city.

To be Continued...


	13. Good News

"I appreciate you all checking up on me, I'm all right now." Chian said as she sat on top one of the bar stool.

After Neptune's conversation with Histoire, the party decided ro check Chian if she already calmed down after the shocking news they heard a couple of days ago.

"Are you sure, Chian? The Tech Expo may be gone, but I'm sure there's another way to to help!" Compa said while looking at Chian.

"I know, I'm not givin' up yet." Chian said while nodding, a small smile on her face. "The shop called and told me to gather up the materials I ordered a while ago." she then looked up to the party. "Could you get them real quick? You've still got the map, tight? It should be pretty simple to find."

"Sure, we'll be going right away." Neptune said while nodding and smiling brightly.

"Thank you, and please be careful, I don't want you girls getting hurt like yesterday." Chian said while giving them a smile.

"Okay, bye." Waving, Neptune exited the room, followed by IF and Compa.

* * *

"Is this the shop?" Compa asked as she looked at the building in front of her.

"The map says this is the right place." IF said as she looked down at the map Chian gave them several days ago. "Let's go in." her companions nodded and they entered the building.

After they entered the building, the party quickly headed to the counter where they saw a middle-aged man standing behind it. The man has a white hair and beard, he wears an olive green colored shirt, brown pants, and a white hat. From what Chian had told the party, the man's name was Chevre.

"Hi-hi! We're here to get Chian's stuff." Neptune cheerfully said as she approached the counter.

"Oh, you're the performing trio Chian mentioned?" The man asked before jerked his thumb to a door, not far from him. "The bag's in the back. It's got a big label on it and it's fairly heavy." he explained.

"No sweat. I'm in command of these two girls with decent strength stats." IF said while nodding. "They carry anything."

"Great." he said while smiling softly. "Seems Chian found some lovely friends to help her out." he muttered. "She's been too high-strung ever since she took over after her father. I'm glad she's found people she can depend on." he continued while looking at them.

"Y'know..." Neptune began. "We haven't met her pop yet. Could he be...?" she tapped her chin for several times before raised her index finger. "1) Working on another planet." she then raised her middle finger. "2) A binge drinking gambling addict." and finally, she raised her ring finger. "3) Impaled by a hedgehog. Answer away." she said, her friends looking at her stupidly.

"W-Wait, that third one is a little..." Compa was about to said something, but she paused. "Oh, Nep-Nep, you're being rude." she said while looking at her friend.

"Unfortunately, the third is the closest." the man said before chuckled softly, with the three girls looking at him in shock. "It's cliche, but he died in a tragic accident." he said while looking down. "He died because he was attacked by a monster."

"Father... died... Monster..." Neptune muttered softly, her mind instantly remind her of the nightmare she had, she tries to recall it, but she couldn't.

"Is something wrong, Nep?" IF asked as she saw her friend looking down at the floor, her face blank.

"I..." Neptune began, before taking a deep breath, slowly let it out. "I-I'm fine." she said with a nod.

"How do you know Chian." Compa asked the man with curiousity.

"I've known her since she was born." Chevre answered. "I worked with her old man at the factory in Passe." he said. "But like the other factories, Avenir's claws dug deep and we had no choice but to abandon that place." he explained before sighing. "Her mother asked me to come back after her father's death, but I'd already committed to this shop by then."

"So Chian became the president?" Compa asked, getting a nod from the man. "Sounds really dramatic for some minor story characters..." she muttered softly.

"Never fear! We'll right all the wrongs Avenir's committed and stuff." Neptune exclaimed energitically, making her friends flinch.

'How could she changed from a sad-looking to energetic girl so fast?' IF thought to herself, as she looked at her purple-haired friend.

"That would be nice, but I doubt you can." Chevre said before crossed his arms. "Avenir is under direct protection of the Parliament." he explained.

"Whaaaat?" Neptune exclaimed in shock. "The Parliament is part of the Basilicom, right?" Neptune asked and Chevre nodded slowly. "Why'd they wanna protect Avenir?" she asked again.

"I guess you don't know." he began. "Avenir is still on the loose, even after putting so many people through misery, because our Parliament simply refuses to do anything to stop them." he explained with a serious look. "Parliament requires the votes of the people to execute an order. Avenir holds the biggest market on this landmass." he explained. "Meaning they stand for the majorty of Lastation's residents."

"I see. With Avenir on their side, they practically have enough support to do anything they want, as well." IF muttered while nodding in understandment.

"It's a small price to pay for them to ignore what Avenir is really doing." Chevre muttered. "Avenir will continue to grow and Parliament will continue to collect favorable votes. It'll only get worse." he said in a serious tone.

"I never knew this." IF muttered softly. "Sounds like we really should focus some effort on this Avenir business." she said, getting a nod of agreement from her friends.

"Well, why don't you now take the bag and delivered it to Chian? You don't want to make her waiting." Chevre said.

"Right." IF nodded before go through the door that Chevre said leads to the back where the bag is.

"This is it, right?" Neptune asked while pointing at the bag that match the description that Chevre told them.

"It looks like it, let's carry it together, Nep-Nep." Compa said as she approached the bag.

"Okay" with a nod, Neptune approached the bag aswell, and tried to lift it. "This was lighter than I thought. I thought he said it was heavy." she muttered as she carried the bag easily.

"Really?" Compa asked before tried to lift the bag, but it was too heavy for her to lift it. "W-Wow, this is super heavy... how can you carry it so easily, Nep-Nep?"

"Really? Is it that heavy?" she asked curiously. "Man, I must've some amazing power, that I could lift a heavy objects so easily! Just as expected from a maim protagonist!" she said in excitement.

"Stop babling and start working!" IF said while looking at Neptune with an annoyed look. "C'mon, let's bring this stuff to Chian."

"Okied dokie!" Neptune replied while rapidly nodding.

After saying goddbye with Chevre, the party brings all of the required materials back to Passe. After Chian made sure that all the materials was the right things she needed. The party headed back to the hotel before the night fall.

* * *

In the next morning...

Neptune sat besides IF, as the two were watching a tv show on IF's phone, Compa entered the room with a letter in her hand, picking the interest of her two frieds.

"Today's job is to rescue an Avenir employee!" she exclaimed before opened the letter and read it. "Ahem. 'The train was attacked by monsters. Please save the survivor!'" she said before closing the letter.

"Whatwhatwhat? Helping Avenir again?" Neptune asked in a shocked tone. "I dunno about helping out our sworn nemesis!" she protested. "Besides, don't their employee carry giant boomsticks they make at their factories?" she asked again.

"Chian said Avenir doesn't make weaponry for human use, due to their president's motto." IF explained while looking at the letter which contain the map to where the attack happened.

"Plus, the employee themselves aren't bad people. You shouldn't be picky about which lives deserve saving, Nep-Nep!" Compa said as she looked at Neptune stermly. "There is no time to draw when saving lives. Now, let's hurry over to the site where the train was attacked."

"Ugh, fiiiineee..." Neptune said while shrugged, reluctantly picked her sword that was rested against the wall before followed her friend out of the room, and the hotel.

* * *

"Here we go again, another cave." Neptune muttered as the party entered the cave where a train passageway that was used by the train that get attacked were located. "I wonder why this landmass has so many caves." she asked to no one in particular.

"Lastation has many natural resources in it's cave systems." IF answered. "The people used it to improve the technology until it's become the most advanced in this entire world." she explained. "That's why there's so many caves and mines, in this landmass."

As they going further into the cave, they finally arrived at the destination. In there, they could see a crowd of monsters are circling around a train car, even though the train car's walls were strong enough to hold their attacks, it started to crack, and it could break at any moment.

"That's must be where the employee's are." IF said as she observed the scene. "We need to distract them, we must not let them break that car's walls, and injured the passanger.

"I think we should split up." Neptune said, with her friends looking at her. "Iffy and Compa, you two can distract the monsters, away from the train. Meanwhile, I can secure the passanger out of the train and somewhere else." she explained.

"That was a surprisingly good plan, coming out from you." IF commented, and Neptune immediately looked at her in annoyance.

"Whatever." Neptune shrugged before pulled out her handgun. "Hurry up and distract them, I'll sneak there once they're occupied." Neptune said as she changed the bullets of her handgun.

"Right." IF nodded before looked at Compa. "Let's go Compa." she said before rushed towards the monsters.

"Okay!" Compa replied before followed IF.

Pulling out her own handgun, IF shoots the monsters on their backs for several times, successfully gaining their attention as they quickly ran towards the two, but not all of them.

A dragon creature with red colored scale and wings, wearing a heavy grey armor, with it's left hand holding an ax, and it's right hand holding a shield. flied at high speed towards IF and then swung it's ax to hit IF, but IF sucessfully dodged it by rolling to the side.

Since it's body were covered by heavy armor, IF tried to shoot it's revealed body parts, but proven to be difficult since the dragon used it's shield to protect itself.

"Damn." IF cursed under her breath, trying to find the vulnurable spots, while keep dodging the attacks.

Meanwhile for Compa, she was currently running away from three golems that has crystals as their body, the crystals that was it's main body was blue colored, while several little crystals that floats around it was red and green.

"Gotcha!" Neptune said, as she aimed and shot each of the golems, right in the head, sucsessfully stunned them for a moment.

"Nice shot, Nep-Nep." Compa praised while giving Neptune a smile. "Now then." She looked at the crystal golems, smiling. "Arcane Shell!" Compa yelled as she pointed her syringe upwards, a ball of energy formed on the tip of syringe, when Compa pushed the plunger, the masive ball flung upwards while shoothing hundreds of energy needles to the golems. When the ball of energy finally right above them, it fires three beams that each of them hits the golems. Still not enough, the ball of energy then turned into hundreds of smaller energy balls that finally defeated the golems.

"So powerful..." Neptune muttered, before her focus were brought to Compa, when she called her.

"Nep-Nep, save the passanger now! We take care the monster." Compa said before used her giant syringe to shot the monsters in the distance to gain their attention.

"Right." Nodding, Neptune proceed to sneak into the train car without any monsters noticed her.

"La Delphinus!" IF yelled as a white circle rune appeared below the dragon creature, before a pillar of light erupted from the ground and engulfed the dragon until it's dead.

IF turned her head to looked at the train car and find that there's a giant creature that looks similiar to a dolphin, but has a horn on it's forehead, two red skinned wings, and has three dorsal fins, rather than just one.

"That's gotta be the boss monster." she muttered before she noticed the sneaking Neptune in the distance giving her a signal to attrack the monsters. Nodded she pulled out her handgun and shooted the dolphin creature on the back, several times, sucessfully attrackes it's attention. "Hey! I'm here!" she yelled before running away as the creature chased her along with the other monsters, leaving the train car alone.

Approaching the train car, Neptune knocked the walls for several times. "Come out! It's not save in there!" she said.

Several moments later, the car's door opened, revealing the Avenir employee inside.

"Get out of there, hide behind those rocks! We'll take care the rest of the monaters." Neptune said, and the employee quickly ran towards the rocks that Neptune pointed and hide in there.

Looking back to the battle, IF and Compa started to getting the upper hand against the monsters, so Neptune decided to help them finnished the monsters as quickly as possible.

"Hyaah!" Neptune yelled as she slashed the Dolphins head, finally killing it. "None the worse for wear." she muttered hapilly as she looked at the dead bodies of the monsters they slayed.

"Indeed." IF nodded in agreement. "Let's go check the employees." she said while gestured her head towards the rocks where the employees were hiding.

As they approached the rocks, the employee, a man with a long brown hair, dressed in a brown suit and pants, wearing a thick glasses, came out of hiding and faced them.

"Good, you're safe. Are you okay?" Neptune asked as the man was looking at her with interest.

"My, my, if it isn't Ms. Neptune, I never expect that you would be the one that Mr. Singe send to save me." he said while smiling. And for the second time, Neptune felt that she had heard that voice before.

"Are you the employee we were asked to save?" Compa asked the man. "Your company requested we come here and save you." she said.

The man nodded. "That's right, my name is Ganache. Nice to meet you, Ms. Compa, Ms. IF." Ganache said while bowing slightly.

After several moments of thinking, Neptune finally decided to ask him. "...Have we met before?" she asked with curiosity. "I apologize, but I don't recall your face. How... could I forget someone I've met?"

"Have we ever met?" Ganache asked while looking at Neptune. "Perhaps you've mistaken me with someone else, since I never leave Lastation." he explained while shrugged. "Sorry for the trouble." he said while fixing his glasses. "I was running around, prepping for the Tech Expo, but I was attacked by monsters on the way."

"Tech Expo?" Compa asked while tilted her head in confusion. "I thought it was cancelled!"

"Well, no. It'll go om as it usually does." Ganache answered. "Perhaps the news hasn't made it to the public yet. Please forget what I said!" he said.

"How could we? Chian was so disappointed... If you're telling the truth, this'll be great news for her." IF said while crossing her arms.

"...That's true. You said you're preparing for the Expo, right? What does Avenir plan to showcase there?" Neptune asked with curiousity, decided to put away her confusion about the man for now.

"Oh, come now." Ganache rolled his eyes. "Do I look like I've got loose lips? A big mouth? Do I seem like a stool pidgeon?" he said while extending his hand to the sides. "I can't just tell you!" he said, before looking at Neptune with a serious expression. "...But between you and me, we've been preparing for this Expo since the company started." he muttered quitely. "Which means this is something that's been in the preparation stages for years!" he said with a hint of excitement in his voice. "I'm sure you'll eventually learn more about the Expo if you tune into the radio."

"..." Neptune didn't say anything, her mind keep telling her that this man right here, clearly has something to do with her.

"Well, I better keep going." Ganached said before walked towards the train head to start the train again. "See you around."

As the train goes away, Neptune just stared at it with a blank expression, her mind's full of thoughts.

"What's wrong, Nep? You're quiet." IF asked as she looked at her purple haire friend.

"I don't know. That man is so suspicious, I have a feeling that I've met him before, but I don't know where." Neptune answered.

"You shouldn't be suspicious with other people, Nep-Nep. That man seems to be kind enough." Compa said while looking at Neptune.

"Well, we could think about it later." Neptune said before turned around. "Let's get out of here." Her companions nodded, and the party walked towards the exit.

However, when the party reached the room where the exit was, a certain person were waiting them.

Rolled her eyes, Neptune sighed. "Of all times..." she muttered as she looked at the long white haired woman in the entrance.

To be Continued...


	14. Second Encounter

"You know, you really stand out when you're in that form. You ought to stay like that all the time." the stalker said as she glared at Neptune sharply.

"Whoa, you again? You're presistent." Compa said before looked at Neptune besides her. "Nep-Nep, I think we should run, we could not let her have her way to you again." Compa whispered, and Neptune shook her head.

"No." Neptune replied. "We can't run, she was the only one who might know about me, I need her to tell me the truth." she said while looking at Compa.

"But she was too strong for us!" Compa complained and Neptune shook her head.

"Don't worry, we will be carefull this time, trust me." Neptune said while giving her friend a reasurring smile.

After a moment, Compa finally nodded, and let Neptune approached the stalker that blocked their exit.

"You wish to fight again?" Neptune asked the stalker. "You've lost once already. Care to make it twice?" she asked again, amd the woman twitched at that sentence.

"Tch! I like that you know just how to tick me off. Makes me want to kill you this very instant!" she said in an angry tone. "I admit that I was careless last time. But this time, this time, I will surely send you back to hell." she drawed her giant sword and pointed it to Neptune.

Neptune sighed, calming herself. "Before that." Neptune began. "I'd like to know why you're coming after me, even more, want me dead." she stated in a serious tone. "I apologize for any wrongdoings I committed against you in the past that makes you hate me this much, but Compa and Iffy need more clarification." she explained, but the woman just merely scoffed.

"A dead person doesn't need to know what happened in their past." she said while glaring at Neptune with full hatred. "If you want yo know, defeat me first!"

'A dead person?' Neptune thought, didn't understand what was the woman is talking about.

Decided to shrugged off the thoughts for now, Neptune nodded at the woman's request.

"Very well, just don't cry when you lose." Neptune mocked while pulling out her sword.

"Like I was the one who cries when I lose!" the stalker screamed before flies forward with her sword in her hand.

The two swords clashed with each other with a loud _cling_ sound that echoed inside the room where the fight's takes place.

"Hyah!" the woman spun around as her sword was covered with fire, and clashed it with Neptune's sword, and made a little explosion when it touches, which sends Neptune away.

"Guh." as she stops besides IF and Compa, Neptune looked at them. "We need to do that plan again. Let's attack her together." she said.

"Right." IF nodded while pulling out her katars.

"You two still wanna protect her? Even though it will cost you your lives?" the stalker asked them in amusement.

"That's right! We're friends, and friends will always helped each other, even if it cost us our lives." Compa said while nodding, a determined look on her face.

"Impressive." the stalker whispered softly.

The party rushed at the stalker, and every one of them tried to attack her, but the stalker used her wings flied away and avoid the attack.

Pulling out her handgun, Neptune fired several shots at the stalker that keep zipping on the air to dodge the bullets.

"Volcano Dive!" the stalker yelled as she launch herself to the ground at high speed, with her sword high in the air.

Remembering their last battle, the party quickly rolled away as the stalker slammed her sword to where the party was several moments ago, creating a giant crater, accompanied by a wave of fire.

Using her arms to blocked the burning wave, Neptune's eyes widened in shock when the woman was suddenly in front of her, catching her off guard.

"Venom Fencer!" the stalker hit Neptune by using her sword for five times in different location. On her shoulders, arms, and belly, before kicked her on the side and send her crashing to a nearby wall.

As she slid the wall to the ground, Neptune tried to move, but her entire body was aching, the pain only get worse when she moves, so, she decided to remain still.

'She must've injected me with poison.' Neptune thought as she thinked about the name of the move that the woman just used to her.

"Nep-Nep!" Knowing that her friend is in damger, Compa was about to run at Neptune, but she was blocked by woman, who using her sword to slash her, but Compa sucessfully dodge it.

"Get past me first!" the stalker said before she rushed at Compa and tried to hit her, but was blocked by IF's katars.

"Heaven Demon!" IF yelled before throwing a barrage of attacks at the speeds of light, so fast, that the stalker can't keep up, and ended up getting several sucessful hit from IF.

While the stalker were occupied by IF, Compa used this opportunity to heal Neptune.

"Compa's antidote." Compa said as she put her hand on Neptune's shoulder.

A soft green light appeared around Neptune, and the poison effect is gone.

"Thanks Compa." Neptune said with a smile, as she stands up, ready for battle again.

"Hah!" The woman sucessfully landed a hit on IF, before kicked her away to crush against a nearby wall.

Turning her head, she was greeted with a foot on her face as Neptune do a flying kick, that pushed her back several meters away.

Rubbing her face, she looked up, and saw Neptune was in the air and tried to slash her with her her sword, but the stalker quickly blocked the attack

"Not bad, despite of not using your power." the stalker said as she pushed Neptune away.

'My power?' Neptune asked to no one in particular.

"But it will end here." the stalker raised her sword and then, a colorful energy covered her sword. "Tornado Sword." she yelled before she swung her now-colourful-sword at Neptune.

Sensing danger, Neptune tried to block the attack with her sword, but much to her shock, her sword shatters into pieces upon impact.

The stalker smirked upon seeing Neptune's shocked face. Wasting no time to attack her. "Tornado Chain!" She rushed at Neptune with high speed, then slashed her across her torso, before take off into the air then kicked Neptune on the chest, so hard that Neptune could feel her heart stopped beating for a second. When the woman landed on the ground, she snapped her fingers, then suddenly, streaks of lights appeared around Neptune, attacking her with painful invisible attacks.

Falling into the floor, breathing heavily, Neptune cracked an eye open, to see the stalker was right above her, this time however, she avoided eye contact with Neptune.

"Such a pathetic life for you, to die twice in my hands." the stalker said before wrapped her arms around Neptune's neck, cutting the air from her lungs.

Desperately, Neptune tried to break free from the woman's grasp on her neck, but her resistances is futile, since her power is fading.

"Now die, and don't you dare to show those face again, ever." she tightened her grip on Neptune's neck, crushing her throat.

Neptune whimpered softly, a single tear escaped her eyes, as she screwed it shut tightly, preparing for the end.

"That's right, now you- GAH!" suddenly another foot landed on the stalker's face, as someone do a flying kick that send the woman away from Neptune, and released her grip around Neptune's neck.

Gasped loudly, Neptune coughed hard to catch her breath, a moment later, a hand was on her shoulder, turning her head, she saw Compa was putting her hands on her shoulder.

"First aid." a soft green light covered Neptune, and she could feel that her energy has been restored.

"Whew, thanks a bunch." Neptune said with a grateful smile on her face.

"Anytime." Compa replied with a smile.

"Appocalypse Nova!" IF screamead as she jumped high in the air before firing multiples energy needle that hit the woman and pinned her against the ground. After that, IF pulled out her kattars as she fall towards the pinned woman. "TAKE THIS!" she yelled as she slashed the woman, causing a masive explosion of energy to happen.

As the explosion sent the woman flying, IF put all of her energy to her right hand, and with it she slashed the woman from the distant, causing yet another explosion of energy to appear.

"Gah!" The woman cried out in pain as she crushed against the wall, as she fall down to the floor, she reached up to wipe the blood that coming out from her mouth, staring at her own blood in her hand for a second, and then she smirked. "Not bad, but not too good either."

Standing up, she then used her wings to make herself floating on the ground.

"I'll show you, my power." she extended her hand to her side, then she gripped her hands tightly. "Haaaaaaa!" Suddenly a fiery aura covered the attacker's body, and the party could feel the power build-up from her.

"She still have this much power, even though I've already used my special moves on her?" IF asked in shock as she looked at the woman.

"Infinite slash!" In a blink of an eye, the woman was gone from where she used to, and before the party could bring their guards up, she was already in front of them, then slashed at the three of them at the same time. Before they could recover from their shock, she appeared behind them then slashed them on their backs. The stalker repeated her attacks on the party for twelve times, before she takes off high into the air, and her sword raised. "Time to finnish this!" she yelled before launching herself to the ground.

Time seemed to stop when the stalker said that.

Neptune slowly lifted her head to see the woman was heading towards her at high speed, her sword was high in the air, aiming for Neptune's neck.

The two made eye contact again, and when Neptune saw the woman's eyes, she could see deep hatred, anger, and depression inside the woman. But in the same time, she could also see sadness, and sorrow inside of it.

And that is when Neptune realized, that her life should not end here, she will not give up, she will not be dead by this woman's hands without knowing the answer.

When the woman was mere centimeters away from her. Neptune quickly bent and barely avoided the woman's attack, only resulting with a long scar on her cheek.

The woman was clearly surprised when she saw Neptune avoided her attack, but her shock was quickly replaced by pain, when Neptune quickly stands up then used the remains of her sword to deliver a quick and painful slash across the woman's back that broke her wings thus prevent her from keep flying.

"Dual Edge!" Neptune said before pulling out her handgun, then shoots all of the bullets inside it to the woman's back.

The stalker cried out in pain as fall into the the floor, tumbling across it, before sliding for a few meters away then crashed against the wall.

"I...I did it." Neptune said happily before falling to her knees, panting heavily.

"A-Are you okay, Nep-Nep?" Compa asked with a worried tone as she looked at Neptune that was heavily injured. "You don't look so good." She commented before using her healing power on her.

Not far away from them, the woman stand up, her eyes screwed, enduring the pain on her back after getting shot for several times. She was glaring at Neptune, with a combination of confused, angry, and surprised look.

"...I won again." Neptune softly said, as she slowly and carefully approached the woman. "Spill it."

"You look the same, but you've changed so much." the stalker said as she looked at Neptune, then to her friends. "How can you look so proud while involving humans?" the stalker said, and Neptune tilted her head in confusion.

"And what's the matter if I involving my friends?" she asked in confusion. "Besides, you're the one who initiated the battle." she then gave the woman a pleading look. "Tell me about who I am."

"..." the woman didn't answer.

When Neptune was about to say something, the woman growled.

"No way! I'll admit this was a draw, but there's no way Lastation has lost!" she yelled with anger in her voice.

"What are you bringing up Lastation for? What are you talking about?" Compa asked in confusion. An then an idea hit her. "I know!" she said while bumping her fist with her hands. "What if Lastation is actually a huge transforming robot...?"

IF smirked upon hearing that. "That's fresh. But I don't think so."

"Don't talk down about my homeland! You'll regret it one day!" the stalker yelled, but when the party turned their attention to her, she was no longer in where she used to be, Instead, she was standing on the exit. "I'll kill you next time, Neptune!" she yelled before running away.

"She's running away! Nep-Nep we should..." Compa trailed off when she remembered their current condition. "Oh, sorry, I forgot."

"I'll let her go this time. The next time we met, let's make sure to not let her go away." Neptune said before hissing in pain. "By the way." there was a growling sound, and everyone turned to looked at Neptune. "I'm hungry, let's go back and grab some yummy food."

"I wonder how she didn't get fat from all of the foods she ate."

* * *

"Hi-hi we're back!" Neptune cheerfully said as she entered the restaurant where Chian is working.

Upon hearing her voice, Chian turned to greet them, but she stopped on her tracks when she saw them.

"What happened? Are you girls okay?" She asked with concern as she approached them.

"We're fine, just another sudden attack that we can't predict." IF answered while crossing her arms. "Anyway..."

"We're here to tell you about a good news!" Neptune exclaimed picking Chian's interest.

"A good news? What is it?" She asked and the party proceed to explain everything that they heard this day. "Are you sure the Expo is still on?" Chain asked in surprise. "I can't let myself get my hopes up of it's not true."

"Oh, please." IF rolled her eyes. "You owe us for coming here to tell you." she said.

_"...Broadcasting public information from the Basilicom."_

A nearby that was seated on the counter said.

_"The Tech Expo, said to be cancelled a few days ago,_ _is now re-opened under the sponsorship of the Parliament."_

"See, told ya!" Neptune said while pointing at the radio. "The Expo's on like monkey kong. you heard it too, right everyone?" Neptune asked to no one in particular.

Chian nodded. "Yeah, but... Parliament sponsorship? What do you think that means?" Chian asked while looking at the party.

"I have a bad feeling... Actually, I think I have only bad feelings about this." Compa muttered aloud.

"We heard what that employee said. They've been preparing years for this." IF said with a serious expression.

Pulling out a paper, Chian reads the content inside it. "The Expo's theme is 'weaponry.' but that was only decided on this year." she said before putting the paper away. "How would they have prepared without knowing...?" she muttered softly.

Putting her hand on her chin, Chian closed her eyes and think.

"But if they knew in advance..." she opened her eyes and shook her head. "No, what if they're the ones who forced the decision?!" she exclaimed.

"Th-That's cheating!" Compa also exclaimed. "Do you really think Avenue had this planned out since their company's foundation?" Compa asked with a serious expression.

"True." IF replied with a nod. "It's a lot of effort just to get attention. They must be draping a cloak over their real objective." she said.

"They're probably planning to absorb the entire industry. The Expo is perfect for them to flex their mechanical muscles." Chian muttered softly.

"For reals?" Neptune asked curiously.

"Who knows." Chian replied while shrugging. "All I'm certain of is Singe, the representative, wishes to replace everything on Lastation with machines!" she said.

"W-Wh-What? He wants a world of robots?" Neptune asked in surprise. "Does he have a machine fetish?" she then gasped when an idea hit her. "Is he a cyborg looking for love?" after that everyone chuckles.

"He just hates humans. He doesn't know how to trust them." Chian answered. "Avenir has ton of employees, but all the manufacturing is done by machines. There's little for humans to do there." she explained. "Most are in marketing or run errands like buying materials... They just support the machines."

"I see. Then, there must be very few humans working at their headquarters." Compa muttered.

"Right." Chian nodded. "Anyway, I hope nothing bad happens at the Expo..." she muttered softly.

"Indeed." Neptune agreed while nodding. "Anyway, we're here for food, I order pudding!~" she exclaimed cheerfully.

Giggled, Chian stands up and headed towards the kitchen. "Okay, coming right up."

"I wonder how long you could actually survive without pudding." IF muttered.

To be Continued...


	15. Secret Meeting

It was nighttime at Lastation.

Inside the Lastation Basilicom, there was a large room with round walls made out of glass. At the end of the room, there was a smaller room with a statue inside of it. The said statue was a statue of a woman that was none other than the statue of the CPU of Lastation, Black Heart.

A moment later, a door opened, and entering the room, was a man with long brown hair, in a brown suit and pants, with a thick glasses on his face.

"Hello." The man said calmly as he entered the empty room, a moment later, the door behind him closed. "I never expected to be able to meet with Lady Black Heart alone." he muttered softly.

"I'm glad that you feel that way about me, despite being from a different land." a womanly voice said as a black-haired girl in twintails, walked out from behind the statue of Black Heart, some part of her body was covered with bandages, especialy her back. "Still, I've no time to waste chatting." she said as she stopped a few meters away from the man.

Taking a deep breath, the ravenette turned around and lifted her hair to show her bandages covered back to the man who stared with interest.

"...I see, you've failed to finnish her off for the second time, huh?" the man said while nodding.

"I have no idea why or how, but Neptune has become stronger than I anticipated and, of course, there's a possibility that she'll continue to grow in strength." said the ravenette as she dropped her hair then turned back to look at the man.

"So we should deal with her first? If it's for you, I'd activated the entire army and face her tomorrow." the man said while adjusting his glasses. "But realistically, I doubt I can do that so quickly. I can't imagine the people's reactions with it." he said while shrugged.

"That reminds me... Was the army is ready yet?" the ravenette asked with curiosity.

The man shook his head. "Unfortunately, it's not ready yet." he answered. "We still need a few more before it's ready to sent and conquer that land." He said before looking at the ravenette. "Besides, it's the best if we defeated the goddess first before her land. And I've a perfect plan in mind for that."

The ravenette then raised an eyebrow. "Really? Will your plan will truly succeed?" she asked, and the man nodded.

"I've been observing the little Neptune ever since her appearience after that incident in Planeptune. I'm sure it'll go as expected." he said while smiling sinisterly. "Just sit back and wait for us to take her down. I'll stake the Guild's pride on it."

"...What of the representative? I can't understand what he's thinking. Is he fine with this or not?" the ravenette asked again.

"I don't think he likes me that much, but it's irrelevant. He's got his own way of dealing with things." the man answered, shrugging.

And the night goes on.

* * *

_"Hey, everyone. This is CPU Black Heart."_

_"It's time to talk about Lastation again. I'd like to discuss an enviromental issue today."_

_"To be honest, the air surrounding the downtown and factory areas isn't the best."_

_"We used to get a lot of smog warnings, but since we started focusing on future-proof-eco-activity, it doesn't happen as often."_

_"Hundreds of years ago, many top-class engineers moved here from Planeptune since the Landmass has lost it's goddess."_

_"With their knowledge from Planeptune combined with Lastation's undeniable technology..."_

_"We successfully decreased the levels of smoke and toxic waste from our factories. That's what I call discipline."_

_"The Planeptune engineers were pleased to see their knowledge finally being put to good use."_

_"Now they're working very hard at their goal: making Lastation the best landmass in the world. I think some of them will get a second job to do that."_

_"That's our current stance on Lastation's environment."_

_"S-Sorry this got all long and preachy. Not that you should complain about hearing me talk. See you in the next update."_

* * *

"Look! Someone's coming!" said Compa while pointing at someone who was heading towards them.

The party was currently taking another job from Avenir, when they arrived at the location where their mission would be taking place, their client wasn't there yet, so IF decided to read another goddess blog to surprass the time.

As the person that they believed to be their client approached them, the man stopped on his track, once he saw the girls.

"You are the ones Avenir hired to fight monsters?" he asked while frowning. "What the hell is that company thinking?" the man complained loudly.

"Heeeeey, you're the meaniepoo who kicked us out when we first went to the Basilicom!" Neptune exclaimed in surprise while pointing her index finger at the man. "What're you doin' here?" she asked.

"I'm substituting for an Avenir employee. They asked me to explain the job to you." he answered, before pulling out a paper and read it's content. "You are to defeat as many monsters per their specification as you can and deliver their bodies, dead or alive." he explained before putting the paper inside his pocket.

IF raised an eyebrow when she heard the explanation. "Why do they want the monsters?" she asked curiously. "Are you sure that's what they said?" she asked again.

"Maybe they need their hides." Compa muttered. "But over-predation will drive a monster species to extinction!" she said loudly.

"Who trades monster hides anyway?" he asked sternly. "Monsters should become extinct." he said before turn around. "If you have questions, just ask the damn employee later." with that, he walked away.

"Do you... have any idea, Iffy?" Neptune asked her brown-haired friend who shook her head.

"No, I never heard that there's a certain monster that could be used as a materials for machines." IF answered before looked down at her phone. "Let's just ask the employee once we're finnished our job."

Her companions nodded, and the party headed towards their quest location.

* * *

The location that their job taking place of was an abandoned old factory, ever since it's abandonment, monsters used the building as their nest, disturbing anyone who walked across it.

The factory was huge, and there was too many rooms for them to explore.

"I think we need to split up." IF said, as she looked around the the factory. "There's too many rooms, and it will be much quicker if we hunt them separately." she explained.

"Okay, then let's meet up again in exit." Neptune said and her companions nodded in understandment.

With that, they go into their separated ways, with IF goes into the basement, Compa stays on the ground floor, while Neptune goes up into the second floor.

As they went further inside the factory, each of them saw a monster in the form of a giant bird, except that this monster has four legs, with the back legs resembles of that of a cow's legs, while the front legs has giant claws of an eagle. And on it's head, there's four golden horn, two on each left and right side of it's head.

"This must be the monster that they wanted." the three said at the same time.

Pulling out their respective weapons, they rushed into the monster and initiate the battle.

* * *

"You guys done with the monsters?" IF asked her companions, as the party's all gathered at the entrance of the abandoned factory, with a pile of monsters corpes laid on the floor behind them.

"Yup, it's all done. We'll just have to call the employee to gather these bodies." Compa answered, while Neptune just merely nodded.

"Good." IF said with a smile before pulled out her phone to contact the Avenir employee.

After a few minutes of waiting, the employee, a man with messy hair, wearing a black vest on top of a white long sleeved shirt, black pants and boots, and was currently smoking, appeared.

"Greetings." He greeted while bringing up his hand. "Excellent work. I've come to collect the defeated monsters." he said while looking at the monsters corpes behind them.

"Work is work, but I'm not thrilled to help our evil nemesis, Avenir." Neptune muttered, didn't realize that she said that out loud.

The man jerked slightly in shock when he heard this. "...Nemesis? What do you-"

"Don't worry about her." Before the man could say anymore words, IF cut him in mid-sentence. "Anyway," she crossed her arms and looked at the pile of corpes behind her. "we gave it our all and covered most everything in this area." she explained.

The man nodded and smiled in satisfaction. "Thank you very much. You've done exceedingly well." He said before pulled out a cloth bag. "Here is your reward. Please take it." he handded the bag to Compa, and when she opened in, the bag was full with credits.

When she couldn't hold her curiousity no longer, Neptune decided to ask. "What do you plan to do with these monsters?" she asked before giving the man a sharp glare, her hand slowly reached into her new sword that resred on her leg. "Depending on your answer..."

As he saw this, the man waved his hands to calmed her down. "P-Please, there's no need to get so tense. I know it sounds odd." when Neptune stopped her hand's movement, he sighed in relief. "This creature's nervous tissue acts as a conductor in the hardware Avenir is developing." he explained. "The monster will die as soon as the nervous tissue removed, so that's why we didn't specify dead or alive."

"Hmm. Basically, the monster has whatever you need to make some kind of machine." IF muttered, and the man nodded.

"I'm relieved you understand." He said with a smile, before pulled out a phone to make a call. "We'll definitely call on you if something normal humans cannot handle arises."

"...That's hardly flattering." Neptune muttered softly while crossing her arms.

* * *

"Seriously, what's wrong with you? You seems a lot more depressed than usual." IF asked, as the party walked around the city.

Sighing, Neptune shook her head. "I don't know, I just have a lot of bad feelings recently." she anwered in a low tone. "Ever since that meeting with that Ganache guy, and our second encounter with that woman in a plug suit, my mind just wont stop telling me that something bad is going to happen." she explained before sighing.

IF smirked upon hearing that. "You're thinking too much, aren't you supposed to be bright and posstive? Saying everything would be fine." she asked while looking at the purplenette.

Neptune nodded. "Yeah." she said before letting out a sigh. "Since Chian doesn't have any job for us today, what about if we search for the Key Fragment?" she asked her companions.

To be Continued...


	16. Final Confrontation

"Can't find her... Things won't always go as planned, I guess." A woman with long white hair, wearing a black body suit, with six blue colored wings on her back, muttered to herself.

"I wonder where would Neptune would go? Those Guild people said something about a Key Fragment..." she put her hand on her chin. "A piece of... a key? I wonder if it belonged to Neptune. Is that what they're looking for?"

She kept thinking for minutes, until she shook her head as she realized where her thoughts were going.

"...No, no! Stupid Black Heart, don't go off om pointless tangents!" she yelled to her self. "How will I deal with Neptune?" she asked to no one in particular.

After spending more minutes, a random idea came.

"Shall I disguise myself and set up a food shack in front of the Basilicom? She's always loved warm food..." she muttered, before shook her head violently. "...Stop thinking about the food shack!" she yelled to herself again. "It's not like you want to cook for her or anything!"

That was when she realized that someone were approaching her.

"Tch, Neptune...!" she turned around to see a short purple-haired girl in a white hoodie entered the room.

"Hey, you! In the plug suit dealie!" Neptune called out while pointing at the white-haired woman in front of her.

"Wh-What are you...?" backing off a little bit, the woman took a deep breath to calm herself. "Planning to ambush me, eh?! Good for you. I'll gladly accept your challange!" the woman said before materialized her giant sword.

A brown-haired girl that was standing besides Neptune, tilted her head while giving the woman a confused look.

"Why would we want to ambush you?" she asked while crossing her arms. "Did we take the same job again? Or are you..." she paused for a bit, before giving the woman a suggestive look. "Perhaps... stalking cute little Neptune?"

"Wha-no!" the stalker yelled, her face reddening. "Well, yes! B-But, Neptune! I'm here to finnish where we left off the other day!" she said while glaring sharply at Neptune.

"You can't have our Nep-Nep!" Compa yelled as she take a step forward. "If you want her, you'll have to step over my dead body." she said with a lot of determination on her voice.

The woman scoffed and pointed her sword at the three of them. "Okay. I owe you a plate of revenge anyway. I'll kill all three of you at the same time!" she watched in amusement as the party pulled out their respective weapons. "This will be the end, prepare to meet your death, Neptune!" she said before charging forward.

Readying herself, Neptune pulled out her sword, just in time to block the stalker's attack on her.

Pushing her away, Neptune pulled out her handgun and fired several bullets at the woman who easily dodge all of them.

The stalker then leaned back as IF tried to hit her with her katars, after she dodged the attack, she use her empty hand to punch IF in the stomach, causing the girl to cried out in pain, before kicked her away.

"Compa's Love Heart!" Compa yelled as she pushed the plunger of her syringe, and sent a giant pink heart to the stalker.

Realizing that she has no way to dodge the attack, the woman raised her sword, a rainbow colored energy covered it. "Tornado Sword!" she swung her multicolored short at the heart, cut it in half, before it explode.

"Hah!" catching her off guard, Neptune jumped into the air and slashed downwards at the woman who was too slow to block the sudden attack, hitting her hand, and disarmed her.

Using this opportunity, Compa aimed her syringe to the ceilling above the stalker. "Arcane Shell!" a ball of energy formed on the tip of her syringe, and when Compa pushed the plunger, the masive ball flung upwards while shoothing hundreds of energy needles to the woman. When the ball of energy finally right above her, it fires a beam that hit the stalker right on the face. Still not enough, the ball of energy then turned into hundreds of smaller energy balls that fires themselves to the woman.

Before she could recover from the attack, IF got in front of her and yelled. "Heaven Demon." before rapidly slashed the woman for several times at the speed of light.

"Ugh!" the woman grunted in pain as IF kicked her on her side, sending her flying several meters away.

The womam reached up to rub her mouth, she noticed and recognized the red substance that dripping in her mouth.

"Blood..." she muttered before glared daggers at the party. "Damn you!" she growled before energy started to build up on her feet. "Infinite Slash!"

She rushed at the party with high speed, her hands gripped her sword tightly.

'Uh oh, she's angry!' Neptune thought as she prepared herself for the deadly attacks.

With a speed that the party couldn't keep up, the woman flies around them while throwing multiple slashes that some suceeded on hitting them, and some got parried by them.

"Hyah!" She flied past the while sending the final attack, a slash that hit the three of them at once, before a big explosion apprear.

"Ugh!" Neptune grunted in pain as she get blown away by the explosion.

A moment later, the stalker suddenly got in front of her, her sword is high in the air. "Tornado sword!" A rainbow energy covered her sword, before she used it to slashed Neptune across her torso.

The woman then dissappear, and reappear in front of Compa. "Lace Ribbons!" She slashed Compa for several times before kicked her into the air, throws several attacks again, then send her crashing to the ground.

The woman dissappear again, then reappear in front of IF. "Tornado Chain!" she rushed at IF with high speed, then slashed her across her torso, before take off into the air then kicked IF right on her face, so hard that blood both rushed out of her mouth and nose. When the woman landed on the ground, she snapped her fingers, then suddenly, streaks of lights appeared around IF, attacking her with painful invisible attacks.

The three of them collapsed into the floor, each of them didn't expect that the woman was actually this strong.

Neptune struggled to get back to her feet, but before she could even stand, the woman get on top of her.

"Weaklings!" she said before stomping her foot on Neptune's chest, making the girl spitting out blood from her mouth. "Enough talk, I'll end you now, Neptune." the stalker said before raising her sword then directing it towards Neptune's heart. "Haaah!" she plunge the sword towards it, closing her eyes in hopes of not getting any weirds vision.

But that wasn't the case, a gunshot rang, and the woman felt a major pain on her hand, she snapped her eyes wide open, before cried out in pain as a bullet just hit it, forcing her to drop her sword just besides Neptune.

Using this oppurtunity, Neptune hit the woman on her crotch before kicked her away. "Well, guess I need to patch this up later." Neptune muttered, as she looked at the hole on her hoodie, revealing that she had secretly slipped her left hand under her jacket along with her handgun.

While still holding her aching hand, the woman glared at Neptune. "Why you-" before she could finnish her sentence, a giant pink heart, hit her on her back, exploded upon impact, catching her by surprise. As she fall to the ground, she looked up, as IF jumped high into the air while screaming. "Appocalypse Nova!" before firing multiples energy needle that hit the woman and pinned her against the ground. After that, IF pulled out her kattars as she fall towards the pinned woman. "TAKE THIS!" she yelled as she stabbed the stalker on her back, causing a masive explosion of energy to happen.

The stalker were blown away by the explosion, crashing against the wall, so hard that it leaves a giant crater, and makes the entire room shook. As she fell to the ground, some boulders fall on her, burrying her.

"Looks like we win again." Neptune muttered softly as she looked at the place where the woman got buried by the boulders.

With a grunt, the woman arised from below the boulders, her wings was broken again.

"Again...?" The woman muttered to herself. "I have no choice but to admit I can't quite take all of you down at once." she said in an angry tone.

"It doesn't matter how many times you try!" Neptune said with a proud smile. "Justice is totally on our side!" she said while putting her hands on her sides.

"How can you talk about justice when you three face me at the same time?" she asked in an angry tone.

"Because you're the one who asked?" Neptune replied.

The woman growled in frustration. "Even though I can't beat you right now, there's still one way!" she pointed her finger at Neptune. "This entire landmass will eventually assault Neptune. Don't ever forget that!" she said before running away.

"The entire landmass? For reals?" Neptune asked in shock. "This is getting more and more complicated." she muttered softly.

"Why would the entire Lastation all targetted Nep?" IF asked in confusion. "This wasn't making sense at all." She muttered before looking at Neptune. "Shouldn't you have chased after her?"

Neptune's eyes widened after she heard that."Oooh, snappy-snap! I forgot that she's no longer have wings! And I could ask her everything if I catch her!" Neptune said before running towards the direction where the woman fled. "Wait up!" she yelled.

IF sighed while crossing her arms as she watched her purple-haired friend goes away. "Geez. She's got such a one track mind." IF looked at Compa them gestured her head towards the exit. "Shall we? I'm she'll be fine alone." Compa nodded and the two exited the cave.

* * *

"Nothing's going on my way." A twintails black-haired girl muttered to herself as she stand in the center of a cave room. "I lost to Neptune and my power's run out on top of that." she sighed softly, and was prepared to leave...

When suddenly, someone hugged her mid-section from behind, which was both surprised her and hurt her since the hug was a bone-crushing one.

"Gotcha!" The high-pitched voice said from behind her.

"Waaaaaaaah?!" the ravenette yelled in surprise.

"Gotta catch em' all!" the voice from behind her said. "All right, prepare t-huh?" the person behind her noticed something strange.

She released the hug and take a look at the ravenette. "Uh oh, I got the wrong person." the owner of the voice, a short purple-haired girl said.

"N-Neptune?!" the ravenette jumped back as she glaring at Neptune. "Don't scare me like that!" she yelled, before noticing that Neptune was alone, without any of her friends in sight. "Have you come after me?" she then took a stance. "Fine, let's go, fair and square!"

The mysterious black-haired girl was about to pull something out, when Neptune waved her hand, trying to defuse the girl.

"Whoa, hold your phonies." she said while still waving her hand on her front. "Have we... met?" she asked, getting a confused look from the other girl. "Sorry, who are you and where are you from?" she asked again, making the other girl more confused. "Hmm, but we know each other, right? Sorry, I gotta bad memory lately, so..." Neptune rubbed the back of her head. "I guess that explains why I'd become an amnesiac so easily! Y'know, it kinda sucks." she muttered to herself.

"Neptune, you lost your memory?" the ravenette asked with curiosity.

"Yeah, it was a while ago." Neptune answered with a nod. "I don't know any single thing about myself, I even have to asked someone to know my own name. Iffy and Compa have been..." Neptune trailed off when she remembered something more important that she should do. "Oops, I totally forgot! Have you seen a girl your age in a skanky one-piece with lots of weapons on her body?" she asked the girl in front of her.

"I don't know where to begin." the ravenette put her hand on her chin. "I... saw someone like that fly into the sky... and then into the horizon."

Neptune clicked her tongue when she heard that. "Aww, of course I can't catch her on foot. Thanks for the spiffy info." she said with a smile. "So, you're..." Neptune finally noticed that the black-haired girl in front of her has multiple visible injuries on her body, some of them are bleeding, and some of them are bad bruises. "Whoa! Are you bleeding?!" she asked in surprise and concern.

"Huh?" the ravenette looked down to her body. "Oh, yes, I... um... Monsters! I was assaulted by three little harpies!" she answered.

"Um, maybe you should get those treated." Neptune said before holding the girl's hand. "Lemme take you to town, okay?" she said before running towards the exit, dragging the girl along with her.

"Wh-What? Wait... Um, I... O-Oh...!"

To be Continued...


	17. Forgiveness

"...The injuries aren't severe. I'm sure you'll be all healed up in a few days without no scars at all." Compa said with a smile as she finished treating the black-haired girl's injuries.

"Thank you." the ravenette replied with a smile of her own. "You're Neptune's friend, um... Compa, right?" she asked, getting a nod from the peach-haired girl.

"Yes! I first met Nep-Nep in a hospital back in Planeptune. We've been as close as scissors since then!" Compa cheerfully explained.

"So where'd you come from?" Neptune who was sitting beside the ravenette asked curiously. "Iffy's not here, but that's okay. We can take you back to whererever you're from."

"Um," the ravenette put her hand on her chin as she thinks. "I came from really, really far away." she answered. "I don't... r-remember the details." she muttered softly.

Immediately, Neptune stared at the balck-haired girl beside her in surprise. "What? Then... you're...! My amnesiac best buddy?!" she asked in surprise.

"Huh?" the ravenette looked at Neptune in confusion for a second before her expression changed into a surprised one. "Oh, oh yes! That's right, amnesia." she said. "Oh, boy, I can't remember a single thing! It must've happened when I was attacked." she muttered loudly.

"Then how can we get you back home? Uh-oh..."

"R-Right..."

"Why don't you just stick around us until you remember!" Neptune said, making both girls looking at her. "You can totally help us save Histy!"

"No." Compa shook her head in disagreement. "This isn't gonna be an easy journey. We shouldn't involve outsiders!" she complained.

Not long later, the door of the hotel room opened, and from behind it, IF entered the room, her arms crossed above her chest.

"What's all the ruckus? I could hear you from outsode." She pointed out as she approached the girls. "Nice to know you're all chummy, I guess." she then looked at the black-haired girl that sat beside Neptune, giving her a concerned look. "Did you decide what to do? Let's takr her back while it's light outside. Her parents are probably worried sick."

Compa shook her head. "Actually, we've decided she will stay." Compa answered. "She doesn't remember anything. We can't let her fight though, since she's a civilian." Compa explained while looking at the ravenette.

Unexpectedly, the ravenette bowed slightly to the party, her face looking downwards. "I apologize for the trouble. please don't push yourselves for my sake." she said in an apologetic tone.

"No choice, huh?" IF letting out a sigh before glaring at Neptune. "Neptune, you found her, so you better take responsibility for her."

Neptune nodded while smiling brightly. "Alrighty! I'll feed her, potty train her, take her for walks, and get her spayed until she remembers something!" she said energetically, while putting her hands on her sides.

"...What? Oh well." rolled her eyes, IF pulled out her phone, and smiled as she looked at the screen. "Ladies, we've got another job request. Get prepped in forty seconds!" she said before turned around and walked to the door.

"F-Forty seconds...?" Compa said in shock, her eyes become black with black circles around them. "That's so specific and way too quick for a girl to get herself ready to go out!" she complained before stopped wasting her time and get ready.

After everyone's ready, IF opened door then glanced at the ravenette that still sitting on one of the beds in there, staring at them.

"We're going out a bit, so keep the door locked. Eat whatever you find in bowl Neptune got you." She then pulled out a cloth bag and put in on top of a shelf. "Here's some cash." looking back at the ravenette again, she smiled a little. "If you remember where you came from while we're out, don't worry about saying good-bye. Just go. Later." she waved as she walked down the corridor.

"Bye." Neptune winked at the girl before followed her friends.

The ravenette just kept staring at the door, her mind were full of thoughts.

"...So chatty. It's something... we didn't have in Celestia..."

She muttered to herself, letting the silence engulfed the room.

* * *

It was getting late, the sun was setting, and the entire Lastation was covered by oranye colored light.

Inside the a room in a certain hotel, a black-haired girl could be seen sitting on top of a bed, her eyes were downwards as she was lost in her thoughts.

She was bring back to reality, when there was a sudden knock on the door, that made her jerked in surprise. After several more knocks, the door slowly opened, and from it, a short purple-haired girl entered the room.

"Hello~" she looked around the room, and was surprised when she found that the ravenette that she brings several hours ago was still in their room. "Oh, you're still here, what a surprise!"

The purplette closed the door behind her, approached the girl, and flopped to the bed where the ravenette was currently sitting.

"Mmnn, I'm tired..." the purple-haired girl said to herself as she lay down on the bed to relax.

After staring at the purplette for several moments, the ravenette decide to ask. "Where did your friends go?" she asked curiously.

"Well," Neptune began. "After we finished up our today's quest, Iffy realize that we were ran out of healing items and stuff, and so, she decided to go buy some, Compa wanted to accompany her, so I thought, maybe I should go back to the hotel and check whether you're still here or not." Neptune explained, before continue to relieve her fatigue.

Silence filled the room, with neither the two of them say a single word. After several minutes of silence, Neptune decided to open a conversation with this silent girl.

"It's so quiet here when Compa and Iffy are out shopping." Neptune muttered before sat up and looked at the ravenette beside her. "So, didja remember anything yet when we were out, amnesia buddy?" she asked nicely.

"No, unfortunately not. Soon, I hope." the girl answered while shaking her head. She then looked at Neptune and asked. "Can I ask why you three are on this journey?"

"We're saving the world!" Neptune replied. "A beautiful princess named Histy is locked away in like a huge castle prison somewhere." she explained. "Only I can hear her voice. Awesome, huh? She's waiting for us to save her as we speak. How can I ignore her?" Neptune then sighed. "Although, that's... actually not the reason why I tried to save her..."

The ravenette looked at Neptune curiously, then asked. "Then... what is it?"

Neptune sighed and looked downwards. "Well, it was because she was the only person that knows me." Neptune answered.

"...You really don't remember anything, huh?"

Neptune nodded. "That's right, I even forgot my own name, it was Histy who told me my name, and she promised me that once we saved her, she will tell me everything I need to know." Neptune explained.

After a brief silence filled the room, the ravenette said. "You're quite impressive. Even the goddesses who protect this world doesn't do anything to save it like you do."

"Aww, don't say it like that." Neptune said while rubbing the back of her head. "Even though the goddesses didn't do anything to save the world, their presence are still very important. They protect their landmasses along with their people, something that a normal human like me couldn't do." Neptune sighed as she looked through of the window at the red sky. "I'm just a person who was in search of their memories, nothing much nothing less."

The black-haired girl didn't say anything as she listened to all of the things that the purplette said.

"Y'know, it's very nice to talk to a people that can understand me like you." Neptune said while offering a smile to the ravenette. "Compa is too clumsy, and Iffy is too serious. No one can understood my feelings like you. I... I just hope that we could be best friends forever." Neptune sighed. "But, it can't be helped. Are you... um... starting to remember stuff?" she asked.

"Oh, no! Nope, not a thing." the ravenette replied.

Neptune yawned as sleepiness started to overwhelmed her. "I hope you remember them soon. Otherwise, you'll be stuck with us for some time." Neptune said.

"Does my presence is bothering you, then?" the ravenette asked.

"What are you talking about? Of course not, besides, I would be more than happy if you're stay with us! We could become bestiest for life, you and me." Neptune explained hapilly.

_"Why did you do this to me? I thought... I thought we were friends... why?"_

Those words, rang inside the ravenette's head as Neptune said that.

"Sadly, I can only dreaming." Neptune letting out another yawn before unexpectedly flopped onto her side, her head ended up on the ravenette's lap.

The ravenette jerked in surprise at the sudden contact, making Neptune's head fell into the bed.

"Oops, sorry. Guess you don't like that, huh?" Neptune said apologetically. "That's fine, I'll sleep on the pillow."

The ravenette suddenly felt guilty now, it's not like she hate it when Neptune sleep on her lap, it was just felt... wrong.

"N-No, I... I-I'm sorry..." the ravenette apologized softly, making Neptune tilted her head in confusion. "I-I was just... surprised, okay? Y-You can sleep... on my lap." the ravenette said while blushing a little.

Smiling hapilly, Neptune lay back down on the bed, with her head on the ravenette's lap. "Mmm, so soft~ I could sleep forever if I could sleep like this everyday." Neptune cheerfully said as she pressed her face into the girl's soft skin.

As she watched the purplette, a thought crossed over the ravenette's mind. And so, she decide to speak up.

"Neptune, can I ask you a weird question?" the ravenette asked while looking down at Neptune.

Looking up into the ravenette, Neptune nodded slowly. "Okay, but it better not be perverted, I am a pure maiden." Neptune said before giggling.

"It won't, I promise." the ravenette then letting out a sigh. "Do you... ever wanna become a... goddess?" she asked. "You wanna save the people, right? You can do it if you were a goddess. Don't you want that power?"

"A goddess..." Neptune closed her eyes, thinking hard about how to answer the question. After a few moments, she shook her head. "Nopers! If being a goddess means that I have to fight against the other goddesses, compete with each other, or even kill each other, I would never want to." Neptune answered. "All I wanted is a world of peace, where's there's no wars, no pain, no suffering. I want everyone to be happy, because their happiness is also my happiness." Neptune explained.

"Then... what if you're one? What if you are one of the goddesses? What would you do to bring happiness to this world?" the ravenette asked again.

"Well, I'm not a goddess, so I'm not really sure." Neptune replied softly.

"I'm just hypothetically asking "what if"..."

"Hmmm... I would like to help whoever is in front of me first, like I always do." Neptune answered. "And about the Console War... well," Neptune sighed. "I would try to befriend the goddesses." the ravenette's eyes widened in shock when she heard this. "I don't want people to suffer beacause of their goddess is dead. Back when I was in Planeptune, I could see how sad the people in there was. They desperate for their goddess to return, to protect them. Every single day, they come to this shrine where they worship her like she was still alive, despite of the truth." Neptune gripped the ravenette's legs tightly. "When I see them, I just can't help myself but feeling sad, so sad that my heart ache. That's why if I was a goddess, I WILL bring peace to Gamindustri, no matter how much hard I must try, no matter if die like lady Purple Heart does, as long as people happy, I'm fine with it."

"...I see." the ravenette said softly. "I'm glad I heard your very honest answer." she then sighed. 'You would've never said such a thing before.' the ravenette mentaly sighed. 'What should I-'

Her thoughts were cut short when she heard a soft snoring from below her, looking down, she was a bit surprised when she saw Neptune was already asleep, and the ravenette was flustrated when she found how cute her sleeping face was.

When she looked at Neptune's face, the ravenette felt conflicted. Her guts were telling her to materialized her sword and kill the purplette right now in her sleep. But in the other hand, her heart and her mind tells her to let go of her past and realize that the person who was sleeping cutely on her lap was not the one she despise, the one she hates, the one that she feared.

Before she could choose what to do, she unconsciously raised her hand, then gently put it on top of the purplette's soft hair. She caressed it slowly, running her finggers through every purple hair she could touch, as she continues to do that Neptune purred softly in response.

"..."

* * *

"Wake up! Wakey-wakey, Nep-Nep." A girlish voice could be heard, as Neptune opened her eyes slowly.

"Hrrmpphhh? ...Compaaaaa..." groaning, Neptune sat up and stretched her arms upwards. "Oh, was I asleep?" She asked as she looked around the room, through the window, she could see that the sky was dark, meaning that it was already nightime.

"Yeah, comatose with drool, making a little face by your face." As she saud that, Neptune finally realized that her mouth was soaked, and both her left cheek and the bed covers are wet. "She left, huh? There was a note saying she regained her memory." IF said while handling the said note to Neptune.

Wiping her face real quick, Neptune read the note, and for some reason, she felt sad. "Oh, she did...? She was my first and only amnesiac best buddy..."

IF noted the change of expression on Neptune's face, and decide to ask. "Something happen? What did you two do when we were out?"

"We were just talking about stuff. She seemed stressed over something and I was all listening to her and whatever." Neptune answered.

IF sighed and looked at the window. "I know I said it was okay, but it's still kind of cold she actually did leave with just a note saying her good-byes."

Neptune glared at IF as she said that, and protested. "Th-That's not true. We talked a whole bunch and she was really nice! Take that back, you meanieface!"

IF glares back at Neptune with a confused and surprised look. "Wh-What's your problem? Seriously, what happened? You're acting like a spoiled cry-baby... sort of like Compa."

"Huh?" Compa, who was fortunately far enough to not hear what IF just said, looked at her two friends in confusion, before looking at Neptune in concern. "Let's just leave her alone for now, Iffy. Nep-Nep seem upset."

Looking up, Neptune shook her head. "No, I'm... I'm just sad. I dunno why, but I'm sad."

* * *

Somewhere else...

In the center of a wide clearing inside an unknown forest, a black-haired twintails opened her eyes slowly. and the first thing she saw was the bright shining sun above the clearing.

"Where am I? What is this place?" She asked to no one in particular.

A moment later, a distant sound of steps could be heard, and the ravenette's heart began to race.

"Wait, could this be..." she tried to sat up, and was very surprised when she found out that for the first time, she wasn't shackled to the floor like she usually does. "I-Is this real? Or a dream?" she shook her head violently. "No, no, this must be a dream, but why-"

_"It's exactly what you thought, Noire."_

A womanly voice said from behind the ravenette. Turning around, the ravenette saw a woman with long braided purple hair, dressed in a black and purple bodysuit, standing behind her, her face were covered in shadows, except for her mouth and it's surroundings.

"Neptune..." Noire muttered softly as she looked at the woman.

Neptune smiled, before walked around Noire and got in front of her.

"We're in your dreams, and I've come here to visit you." Neptune said while smiling.

"Are you here to torture me again? To get your revenge again?" Noire asked as she backed away from Neptune a little bit.

Neptune giggled at the question, before shook her head. "Of course not, silly. I'm here to... perhaps... to congratulate you." Neptune answered.

"Congratulate... me?" Noire asked in confusion, and Neptune nodded.

"That's right." Neptune looked at the sky, her smile widened. "You have done something that I thought you'd never do, Noire." she then looked down at Noire. "You've let go of your past, you spared my living self, and now, you've find peace within youself."

"Peace within myself?" Noire asked, and Neptune nodded.

"I know that you would decline this, but, I know that deep down inside your heart, you're secretly feeling guilty over my death, right?" Neptune asked and Noire didn't reply. "And now, you've forgive yourself for what you have done in the past, the hatred that previously filled your heart is now replaced with regrets."

Noire didn't say anything, she admit that everything that Neptune said about her is true.

"And for that, I forgive you." Neptune said with a smile.

"You will forgive someone who killed you?" Noire asked.

Neptune nodded. "Even if it was someone who made my life a living hell, I still forgive them, no matter what."

A purple light engulfed Neptune, and when the light fades, her body become smaller, her hair become short, and her bodysuit was replaced with a white hoodie, her face was still covered in shadows.

Noire then flinched in surprise when she realized the incomplitence of Neptune's body: her right hand were missing, her left arm was broken, and her white hoodie was stained in blood, especialy around her chest area.

Neptune unzipped her hoodie while smiling, as her hoodie fell to the ground, Noire gasped in surprise when she saw there was a giant hole on Neptune's chest, in the place where her heart suppossed to be.

"With you letting go of your past and forgive yourself. One of my three burdens were gone." as she said that, the hole on Neptune's chest regenerate until it was good as new. "Thank you Noire, for relieving my burdens." Neptune got to her knees, leaning closer, and hugged Noire tightly.

Before Noire could do anything, her body moved by itself, returning the hug.

"Sleep well, and don't worry, no more nightmares for you, for now." releasing the hug, Neptune stands up, picking her parka dress and put it back on.

Looking back at Noire, Neptune smiled at her for the last time before walked into the woods and dissappeared from her dreams.

* * *

Opening her eyes, the first thing that the ravenette saw was the ceiling of her bedroom, looking through the window she founded that it was still midnight, and the reason why she woke up from her sleep was still the same, beacause of her dream, only this time, instead of nightmares, it was a very sweet dreams.

Rolling on her bed, the ravenette recalled everything that happened in her dreams, and when she remembered it, tears fell from her eyes.

"What should I do now?"

To be Continued...


	18. Familiar Face

The party was now currently back at Chian's factory. Apparently, Chian has called them this morning to gave them an important item.

"I've finished my test model for our showcase at the Expo." Chian said with a smile as she sit on the barstool.

"You're really going?" Compa asked. "The Expo's run by the Parliament now. You might not even have a chance to get them to look at your stuff." she explained.

"I can't back out since I've invested so much already. Not going is no longer an option." Chian answered with a nod. "Besides, Lady Black Heart has the final say. The Parliament can't defy her." she pointed out.

"Is she even gonna be there? The Sanctuary people are ignored by the Parliament side, right?" Neptune asked with curiosity.

Chian shook her head in response. "It's nothing for us to worry about. The Expo isn't the Expo without the main guest." she explained. "The Parliament wants more authority over the Sanctuary. It's just a power play. No point if there's no goddess, though!"

The party nodded in understandment, then Chian cleared her throat.

"Bsck to the topic." she looked at the party with a serious expression. "I wanted to ask you girls to work at my booth, since we're showcasting weaponry."

"Wh-What?" IF said in shock. "No! I won't lower myself to become a booth babe for show!" IF protested with a slightly red face.

Chian giggled softly before shaking her head. "It's not like that. I want you to demonstrate the weapon's functions." Chian explained. "You're all used to handling them, y'know? I'll even let you keep them as a reward after the Expo ends!" she said with a smile.

"Oh, so what weapon is it?" Neptune energetically ask with sparks on her eyes. "Is it cool? Ba-boom powerful?! C'mon, c'mon, c'mon, let's do it! We get free stuff!" she exclaimed hapily. "We spend so much on weapons, especially when that plug suit stalker keeps breaking it everytime we battle. Wouldn't it be totally rad to not have to pay for once?" she asked while looking at IF and Compa respectively.

"Well sure... but, no!" IF protested. "It sounds like a chore and it's still kind of embarrrassing." she then looked at Compa and asked. "You agree, right Compa?"

"But Chian is asking for our help and... we need powerful weapons to fight monsters..." Compa said before looking at Neptune. "Or for Nep-Nep's case, stalkers..." she muttured softly.

Hearing that, Neptune immediately pointed at IF with her index finger. "Done! Match end! Two against one, so majority wins." Neptune said with a smile. "Iffy, you will join us because we're a party!"

Growling silently, IF sighed in defeat. "...It's irritating to have stupid, gullible, moe girls in my party sometimes." she muttered softly.

"What are this "stalkers" that you girls talking about?" Chian asked in curiosity and confusion as the party keeps talking about it.

"It's... personal problems, it doesn't cocerns you." IF answered while sneakily looking at Neptune.

"If you say so then..." Chian stands up and walked out of the room. "Wait here, I'll go grab the test model."

A few minutes later, Chian came back with a giant wooden case on her shoulder, putting it on top of the table.

"There we go." Chian said, rubbing her hands. "Open it, the weapon's inside." she said before sitting down on the barstool she used before.

Neptune looked at the wooden box, pull it closer towards her, then slowly untie the ribbons on it before opening the box.

Inside the wooden box was revealed to be just a mechanical hilt of a sword without a blade in it.

Taking it, Neptune inspect it closely. "What's this?" she asked curiously.

"I called it, the Mech Sword Armas." Chian answered with a confident smile. "It's still just a test model though, there's button in there to activate it." Chian noted.

"You mean this?" When Neptune pushed the button on the grip, a purple beam erupted from the hilt and formed a long laser blade. "Wow, this is so cool!" Neptune exclaimed in amazement.

"Indeed." Chian nodded in agreement.

"Are you for cerial?! Don't you need it to display at the Expo?" Neptune asked as she deactivate the sword.

"...You do know what a 'test model' is, right?" Chian asked with a deadpan stare. "I'm making the real item now, so I want you to use the test model to find anything that needs improvement. I'm basically asking you to test it for me." Chian explained.

"So, we find any defects and report to you, right?" Neptune asked for confirmation.

"Basically... but please don't use the term 'defect.'" Chian said in a low tone.

Neptune nodded. "Well, see what I can find, thanks." standing up she headed towards the exit. "Let's go guys." IF and Compa nodded then followed Neptune out of the factory.

* * *

"Hmm... What should we do to test this?" Neptune asked to no one in particular as she and the party walking around one of Lastation city.

"Maybe we should do some quest? See if it's made us easier to kill monsters?" IF sugested, her eyes were glued on her phone.

"Great idea, i think we should-" Neptune was cut short when suddenly the party hears a terrified screams of people who was running past them.

A man ran past them, but IF quickly grabbed his arms and she asked. "What happen?"

"M-Monsters! Monsters attacked us!" The man said with a horriffic tone.

IF released her grip, and let the man go. Turning around she looked at the party. "Well, there's our ticket, let's go."

Neptune and Compa nodded, and the party headed towards the area where the monsters attacked.

Once the party got in there, they could see that there really is a horde of monsters attacking the city. Some of them are destroying buildings, and some of them attacking the civillians.

"This is bad, if we don't do anything multiple innocent people will get hurt, and this city will colapse, just like Haneda City in Planeptune." Compa muttered in a concerned tone as she watched the scenery.

"I won't let that happen!" Neptune exclaimed as she activate her new sword. "Let's split up. Compa, secure the citizens. Iffy, let's get down in action." Neptune said with a very serious tone.

"Right!" IF and Compa said in unison before goes into their seperate ways.

As Neptune continues to watch the scenery, a flash of memory appeared on her mind, giving her a little headache.

"Danggit, not now!" she cursed loudly before rushed at several monsters that chasing after some citizens.

Pulling out her handgun, she fired multiple shots that sucessfully gained their attention, leaving the innocent people behind and chasing after her instead.

An Ancient Dragon ran towards her, and attempted to hit her with it's giant claws, but Neptune quickly doing a slide to avoid it. Remembering her last encounter with the beast, she switched the bullets of her gun with a light elemented bullets quickly, and aimed for the dragons vulnurable spots that wasn't covered by it's bulletproof scale.

Meanwhile, Compa aimed the tip of her giant syringe towards some Pixelvader and Tentacle Dogoos that chasing after some kids, once she believe her aim was accurate, she pushed the plunger and fired several shots that sucessfully hit the monsters and killed them.

"Get to safety, hurry!" She said to the kids, before turning around to face wave another monsters.

"Okay, thank you miss." they said before running away to save place.

Compa then pointed her syringe towards the sky. "Arcane Shell!" Compa yelled as a ball of energy formed on the tip of her syringe, when Compa pushed the plunger, the now-masive ball flung upwards while shoothing hundreds of energy needles to the monsters on the ground. When the ball of energy finally right above them, it fires multiple beams that each of them hits every single monsters within it's radius. Still not enough, the ball of energy then turned into hundreds of smaller energy balls that launched themselves to all of the monsters and destroyed them.

With her opponents gone, she turned around and goes to search for another person that desperately in need for help.

"Hyaah!" IF yelled as she slashed at some sergeant Froggies with her katar in her right hand, while also shooting at some Pixelvaders in the distance with her handgun with het left hand.

Eventually, the monsters keep coming, and IF found herself both outnumbered and surrounded by the enemies. As the enemies all rushed at her in the same time. IF gripped her katars tightly, closed her eyes, then take a deep breath. As she sensed that the monsters were near, she opened her eyes and yelled. "Heaven Demon!" she does a sword dance, spinning around in place, slicing every single monsters that hit her attacks.

After she stopped spinning, IF looked around to find that the monsters number were decreased, but still many.

Meanwhile, Neptune rolled to the side to avoid from getting hit by the dragon's giant claws. She was about to shoot more but discovered that she has ran out of ammo. Putting her gun away, she pulled out the test model Chian gave her and activate it.

"Lets try this..." she charged at the dragon gripping the sword tightly. The Ancient Dragon took a deep breath before releasing it in the form of hot burning fire. Before the fire breath could hit her, Neptune ducked down, sliding through between the dragon's legs, while sucessfully damaged it's bulletproof scale covered feet.

Looking at the damage she had done to the beast Neptune smiled hapilly before continue to battle the beast.

Several minutes later, all of the monsters were killed except for one ginormous bird-like creature that was proven to be too much for the party.

"Any ideas how to defeat this thing Iffy?" Neptune asked, panting heavily from exhaustion.

"Unfortunately... no." IF answered, also panting heavily.

The giant bird creature hovered above them, letting out a loud _caw_ sound before energy start to build up on it's mouth.

"It's gonna shoot those cazy laser beams again!" Neptune said as she could feel the energy thay builds up on the bird. "I think we should-"

"HYAAAAAH!"

Suddenly, a sound of a scream could be heard, and the party all looked up to the source of the scream.

"Prepare to meet your maker, monster! The one, the only, deadly Justice Kick!"

A black blur flied at high speed in the sky, it hit the bird right on it's beak, cancelled it's attack and also send it crashed towards a building.

The black blur landed on the ground, revealing it to be a with medium length bright dark blue hair and eyes, accompanied by a pair of black goggles with yellow-orange lenses. She wears a black shorts-jumpsuit that is zipped all the way down along with a red scarf tied around her neck and a prinny backpack. She also wears gray gloves with white cuffs and black buttons along with matching shoes.

"The sole keeper of justice in all Gamindustri, Nisa, has arrive." The girl said as she stand up, turning around and looked at the party. "Are you guys okay?"

The party all nodded except for Neptune who was staring at the newcomer's face in a combination of shock and confusion.

"Is there anything on my face?" Nisa asked in confusion as she noticed that Neptune was staring at her.

"I..." they was interupted when the bird creature came back, this time with it's beak broken, preventing it from using ranged attacks.

"We'll talk again after we finish this thing off." Nisa said with confidence, and the party all nodded.

* * *

After they defeated the bird, the four of them talked.

"I see, I was planning to eliminate the monsters alone, but I was in the outskirt of Lastation when I heard the news. I'm sorry for the trouble, it will be a lot easier if I came earlier." Nisa said as she leaned against a wall.

"It's fine, we managed to kill all of them execept for that bird." IF said. "Besides, if it wasn't for you to show up, we actually might get killed by that thing."

Nisa smiled, before turned around ready to leave. "Well, I got some things to do, so, see you around."

"Wait!" Before Nisa could walked away, Neptune called out for her.

Nisa turned her head to looked at Neptune. "Hmm, what's wrong?" she asked.

Neptune gulped, steeling her heart. "Have we... ever met?" she asked.

Silence filled the air for a moment, and then, Nisa shook her head.

"I think we're not..." she answered before continue to walk. "I'll figure something out. If we meet again, I'll tell you."

Neptune didn't say anything, as she watched the blue-haired girl continue to walk.

To be Continued...


	19. Trapped

"Another day, another job from Avenir." Neptune muttered to herself as she and her companions walked around Lastation, they was currently heading towards an abandoned factory where their job taking place in.

"Are you seriously still feeling skeptical about working for Avenir?" IF asked, narrowing her eyes.

"They're our sworn nemesis! Of course I can't help myself but feeling skeptical!" Neptune replied puffing her cheeks.

"Whatever." IF said, rolling her eyes.

After several minutes has passed, the party finally arrived at their destination, waiting in there, was a familiar man with long brown hair with glasses on his face. It was an Avenir employee that the party rescued several days ago, the man who informed them about the reopening of the Tech Expo, and also a source of uncomfortableness for Neptune, Ganache.

"Hello, it's been a while." Ganache greeted the party." "how's you guys going?" he asked nicely while waving his hand lightly. "I've been waiting here so I can explain your job to you."

"Hey, you're that funky solicitor who keeps popping up ever since we saved you!" Neptune exclaimed while pointed the man with her index finger. "Are you workin' hard or hardly workin'?" she asked him.

"Do I seem busy? I'm taking half the week off." he said, raising his eyebrow. "I'm basically done preparing." he explained.

"I'm so envi-..." Compa quickly stopped herself in mid-sentence. "No! That's against the labor laws. I knew you were a twisted bunch!" she said while glaring at the man.

"Well, most manufacturing is done by the machine now, so..." Ganache said with a shrug.

"Oh, right-o. Your guy hates people technicians, yeah? Most of the work is done by machines, huh?" Neptune asked.

"Yes." he replied with a small nod. "Anyway, let's cease the gossip and get back to the topic at hand." Ganache cleared his throat before explaining. "This factory here is older than you think. It was already closed down a few years back, actually."

"And you just abandon a perfectly good factory like that?" IF asked and Ganache nodded. "How selfish." she muttered. "So what are we doing here?" she asked again.

"It's simple." Ganache replied while adjusting his glasses. "There are still some important materials stowed away. We want you to find and collect them all." he explained.

"We have to give you everything we find?" Compa asked in shock. "I don't know if I like this job description..." she muttered softly.

The man shook her head. "No, just the items we specify. You can pocket whatever garbage you find." he explained.

"Now it sounds like we're just getting table scraps. I still don't really like this." Compa complained quietly.

Neptune then raised her hand. "So what're we lookin' for? Bazookas? Lucky Strikers? Cardboard boxes?" She asked energetically.

Ganache then shook his head again. "Less like items, more like materials." he answered. "We're looking for a certain type of raw ore."

"You want three cute girls roughing their delicate hands looking for roks?!" Neptune asked in both surprise and confusion. "Watcha gonna do with rocks anyway?" she asked curiously.

"They're unrealistically useful." he replied. "They're also very scarce since monsters get in the way of our mining." He explained with a serious tone. "Of cource, they're not just normal rocks. One possesses enough energy to power a game console for ten thousand years!" he exclaimed.

"Ten thousand years?! That's awesome!" Neptune exclaimed in excitement. "So we're getting something really awesome?" she asked with full of excitement.

"Yes, you got it!" he said with a nod. "A lot of our products are used outdoors where power outlets aren't an option." he then approached the entrance of the old factory, pressed some buttons on the key pad, and opened the door. "Now, we don't want to waste time here. Please take care of the order." he said while gesturing the girls to enter the party.

"Okay, leave it to me and my party." Neptune said before walked through the door, followed by IF and Compa.

Just as they entered the room however, the door behind them immediately closed shut, starting the party. As the door was the only way for sun rays to enter, the room become pitch black.

"Huh? Did the entrance just close on us?" IF asked in confusion, she tried to reach for the door, but due to the darkness of the room, she couldn't see anything. "Yo, solicitor, what did you do?!" IF called out.

"What did I do? Oh dear..." Ganache voice could be heard from the other side of the door. "I'm sorry. It seems there was some malfunction and the entrance has closed."

Outside, Ganache smirked and then chuckled softly.

"...Actually, this is all according to plan." he said in amusement. "We'll have you tasty little girls get eaten by monsters here!"

"Wh-What's happening?" Compa asked in confusion. "I hate being in the dark like this. Please open the entrance now!" Compa cried out, wandering around the dark room, trying to find the door.

"Uh-oh... Fine." Ganache walked to the nearby power box and flip several switches on. "I guess complete darkness isn't quite fair. I'll turn a few lights on so you can see where you're going."

As the lights inside the factory turned on, IF quickly approached the door and tried to open it in futile. "It can't be opened!"

"But, but, but why?! Don't you wanna get the rocks?" Neptune asked in complete confusion.

Outside, Ganache, after hearing that, face-palming himself. "...Really? You seriously believe there are rocks able to power up a game console for ten thousand years?" Ganache asked. "I lied about that to get you all rilled up. This job is from me, personally. I used the company's name, but who cares?"

"But what'd we do to you?! Why're you doing this?" Neptune asked with much more serious tone. "I thought we were kinda like neighbours!"

Ganache letting out another chuckle, before answering. "I met with someone some years ago, and since then, I've known about you... Neptune." Ganache said with an evil smirk.

Both Neptune and Compa gasped in surprise after hearing this. "I knew it, that's why I always feel uncomfortable around him." Neptune muttered softly.

"You're after her, too?" IF asked before looking back at Neptune. "Nep, were you some sort of super villian before you lost your memory?" she asked the purplette.

"No way!"

"I know Nep-Nep very well, and Nep-Nep has only been Nep-Nep all this time." said Compa, defending her purple-haired friend.

IF sighed and shook her head. "You can't be sure of that. I want to trust her too y'lnow. I was just joking, okay?"

"Iffy..."

"Oops, one last thing. This building will explode in a few minutes." Ganache cried out as he pull the trigger that acativates all of the time boms in the factory. And the party could hear more than one beeping sounds echoed through the factory. "Sorry for the cliche ending. Farewell!" he then ran away.

"What?!" As she heard the sounds of running footsteps, she clicked her tongue. "...He's gone." she then looked at her companions. "What should we do? There are monsters around and we don't know if there's another way out."

Sighing, Neptune then looked at the hallway in front of them that leads to many other rooms. Gulping loudly, she nodded to herself. "Okay, let's concentrate on getting outta here first." her companions nodded and they walked into the corridors. "I swear, the next time we see him, we'll kick him where it hurts!" she said, bumping her fist against her palm.

* * *

As he arrived at his next destination, Ganache grinned before pulling out his phone from his pockets.

"Hello, it's me. I need you to send me one of them to this specific location, please. Yes, thank you." he then hang up the call.

* * *

"Hyaah!" Neptune yelled as she slashed at a floating round machine-type monster that can shoot laser beams from a red mark on it's center. Cutting the machine in half, she quickly rolled to the side as another same type of machine fired a laser beams at her.

As she dodge that, even more of them coming from various rooms in there.

"Tch." Pulling out her handgun, she switched the current bullets with a new elemental bullets that she recently got, lightning. As she done reloading, the all of the machines fired their laser beams at her in the same time. But Neptune was able to dodge it by jumped high into the air, landed on the head of one of the machines, and use it to jump into another and another.

Meanwhile, IF and Compa was surrounded by floating machines that has six pointy things in their back as wings, kinda like the one that the stalker used. Unlike the machines that Neptune is currently facing, these machine could not only shoots laser beams, but also throwing explosive and make disturbing high pitched voice.

"Heaven Demon!" IF yelled as she throws barrage of slashes at one of the machines, she ended her attacks by kicked the machine on it's side and send it crashing with the other machine before it explode.

On the other side, Compa pointed her syringe towards a group of monsters that chasing after her. "Compa Love's Heart!" A giant pink heart materialized on the tip of the syringe, Compa pushed the plunger, launching the giant heart towards the monsters, exploded upon impact.

After several minutes has passed, they finally elimimated all of the monsters in the factory.

"Come on, we got no time left, this factory will explode soon." Neptune said as she give the tired Compa a hand.

Nodded in understandment, they pushed aside their fatigue and keep moving, while time is ticking out.

After several more minutes of searching. The party finally found the room where the second exit was located. However, something has been waiting for them.

Standing in front of the exit, was a giant tank machine with blue metal paint, it has four legs and two energy cannons in front of it's head that could spin three hundred sixty degree.

"W-What is that thing?" Compa asked in surprise as she looked at the giant tank.

"I don't know, but what I do know is that it blocked our way out of here." IF said as she looked at the exit on the other side of the room. "And we don't have much time left."

"Let's just run for it then." Neptune suggested, getting a nod of agreement from her companions.

After the count of three, they ran to the exit as fast as possible, dodging any projectiles that the tank shoot at them. After they successfully ran past the tank, they tried to open the exit door, however, it won't open, no matter how hard they tried.

"Damn it! It's blocked!" IF cursed as she failed to open the door.

behind them, energy started to build up on the muzzle of the tank's canons. Noticing this, they quickly evade the incoming laser beams from the tank.

Neptune looked at the exit and found that the laser blast had leaving a crack and several small holes on the wall.

"We have to make it blast the door again, that's the only way for us to get out!" Neptune said, her companions nodded.

Together, they rushed at the tank, planning to force it using it's destructive laser beams again, meanwhile, the time is running out, and the boms are just mere seconds before it's going to explode.

"Haaaah!" Using all of her strength Neptune kicked the tank's head, redirecting it's target towards the cracked wall. As the tank shooted the laser beams at the wall, the wall finally colapse.

"Now!" IF yelled as she ran outside followed by Neptune and Compa.

When they far enough from the factory, they looked back and saw the tank were following them, but before it could leave the factory, the time is out, and all of the boms has been detonated.

A ginormous explosion appear, smokes erupted to the sky, and wave of wind ran through the party as they watch the explosion in awe.

"We're gonna be in a lot trouble for this." Compa muttered softly.

"I knew that there's something wrong with that man, but I couldn't figure it out." Neptune muttered as she sat on the ground, exhausted.

A phone then rang, and IF pulled out her pink phone and answer it.

"Hello. What?! Okay, hold on, we'll be right there." Hung up, she put her phone in her pocket the stand up.

"What's wrong Iffy? Who is that just now?" Compa asked in confusion as she saw IF's serious face.

"It's Chian, she's in trouble!"

To be Continued...


	20. Avenir Attack

The party ran as fast as they could towards the direction of Chian's factory, but once they get there, it was already too late.

People of Lastation all watched in the distance, too afraid of getting closer, as Avenir mercilessly destroyed Chian's factory, all that remains now was just a ruined place.

"Oh no... We're too late..." Compa muttered softly as she watched the chaos.

"I can't believe they would go this far." IF also muttered, shocked at how Avenir would go as far as destroying someone's company.

Meanwhile, Neptune didn't say anything, her face showing nothing but pure shock as she saw the scenery.

"Unacceptable... trurly... truly unacceptable..." she muttered softly, and if someone's listened closely, they could hear a hint of rage on her voice.

In the distance, a blue haired woman with googles, ran towards them while waving, it was Chian, the destroyed company's owner.

As she approached the party, she panted heavily to catch her breath, before desperately said. "...Haah, haah... Please, help! Avenir's robots invaded my factory!"

"Are you seriously have to ask that?" Neptune who was silent a while ago suddenly yelled, startling everyone. "Let's go!"

"Nep, wai-" before IF could say anything, Neptune already ran towards the factory, eveyone looked at each other in confusion before following after her. 'What the hell is wrong with her?' IF mentally asked herself.

As they entered the destroyed factory, they could see more of the destruction in details, not even a single thing survive, all was destroyed.

In the other end of the factory, they could see a giant robot with serpent-like creature appearience, continues to destroy the facility, even though it was already in ruins.

"I guess that jackass was just trying to keep us busy for a while. It wasn't optional, after all." IF said as she looked at the giant robot.

"This is so horrible. Everthing's been ruined. How are they supposed to work noe?!" Compa muttered softly, tearing up a bit.

"He did all of this, eh?" Neptune muttered, her face downwards. "This... is absolutely, positively, most undeniably UNACCEPTABLE!" without saying another words, Neptune rushed at the robot, ignoring all of her friends' shouts about rushing at enemies without thinking.

"What did I tell you about being careless!" IF shouted, but Neptune ignores it. "Tch, forget it." she then pulled out her katars then looked back at Chian. "Don't worry Chian, we will take care of this."

Chian nodded in understandment. "Okay, please be carefull." she said before running away.

"Let's go Compa." Compa nodded before pulled out her syringe, and the two rushed at the robot.

Taking out her handgun, Neptune changed the bullets with the speed that no normal human could do, after she's done changing, she fired all of the contents inside it towards the serpent-like head of the robot, but it was proven to be futile as all of the bullets were bounce everywhere once they made contact with the seemingly very tough steel skin of the robot.

The attack was only managed to caught the attention of the machine, stopping changing it's objective from destroying the factory to kill every enemies that get in it's way.

As the giant machine turned around, it revealed it's two hands that carried an ax and a mace, each of them are ginormous, enough to finish a girl like Neptune.

But Neptune wasn't afraid, instead, once she saw her opponent's weapons, she become a lot more excited to finish this thing off, and rips it into tiny pieces of metal scraps.

Putting her handgun away, Neptune ducked at the incoming attack from the Killachine's giant axe. As she Slide under it, she activate her sword and run it's laser blade across the machine's long thin floating metal body.

As the machine realize this, it used it's long tail to act as a whip, taking Neptune by surprise, hitting her and send her crashing against the wall.

The Killachine was about to turned and attack Neptune, but a giant pink heart hit it right on it's face face, exploding upon impact, knocking the machine a few meters away.

"No one hurts Nep-Nep without my permission!" Compa said as she fired another love heart towards the robot.

However, before the heart could hit it, the Killachine use it's axe to cut the heart in half, cancelling the attack.

Just then, Neptune emerged from the hole on the wall, her hands gripping her sword tightly. She jumped high into the air, then dive down into the machine's arms. "Dual Edge!" with a slice, she cut the Killachine's left arm that carried it's giant axe. Landing smoothly on the ground, she rolled to the side as she heard a mechanical growl coming from the robot, before it swung it's mace at Neptune. "That's one arm down." Neptune said hapilly as she looked at the broken giant mechanical hand on the ground.

"La Delphinus!" a white circle rune appeared below the Killachine before a massive pillar of light erupted from the ground, engulfing the robot, damaging it, but not enough to destroy it. "Man, this thing is presistent." IF muttered as she looked at the still standing robot.

"Then let me finish it off." IF and Neptune all turned their heads towards Compa, looking at her in confusion. "Watch me, this is my ultimate finisher!"

Compa held her syringe in front of her, closed her eyes, and began spinning in place. As she did this, Neptune and IF could feel energy started to build up around her, the two looked at their peach-haired friend with huge interest.

As Compa spin for another time, she fell on her butt, and accidentally pushed the plunger of the syringe, shooting a substance high into the sky, the substance then exploded like a fireworks, making a shape of heart, the fireworks then all fell down showering the Killachine below it with multiple explosion.

Giggling nerveously, Compa then stands up and faced the Killachine, doing a blows kiss, a tiny little pink heart, flied out of Compa's mouth, slowly approaching the Killachine, as the robot made contact with it, the pink heart turned into a giant explosion that engulfes the Killachine, finally destroying it.

Smiling hapilly, Compa hugged her syringe tightly while giggling.

"Wow..." Neptune and IF said at the same time. "Compa, that was... amazing..." Neptune muttered, still couldn't believe what she had just witnessed earlier.

While Neptune and Compa was talking. IF approached the destroyed body of the Killachine, and inspect it closely.

A moment later, the party heard the sounds of someone running towards them, turning around they found Chian approaching them.

"Have you girls done beating that thing?" Chian asked between pants, exhausted from all of the running.

"Yes, we're all done." IF asnwered with a nod.

Now that the Killachine is gone, Chian take a close look at her ruined factory, her face was showing nothing more than despair.

"Ch-Chian? Please don't be so upset. Forget all about this. We'll fix everything right up!" Compa said, hoping to calm down her friend.

"Ugh, damnit!" Gritted her teeth Chian kicked the nearest object around her in frustration. "I can't lose hope yet." she then looked at Neptune intensly. "You guys still have the test model I gave you right?" she asked and Neptune nodded. "I won't give up. I swore to myself I wouldn't let anything get to me like when I heard the Expo was cancelled."

Neptune pulled out the said test model from her pocket and gave it back to Chian. "Oh, by the way, heres the list of things that I found out when I used it, It'll be helpful." Neptune said while handling out a note.

Taking the note, Chian opened it and read the contents. "Hm, I see, I see... this is indeed will be helpful." Chian muttered before putting both the test model and the note in her pocket. "Well, since this place has been ruined like this, I'm afraid there will be no job for you guys for a moment." Chian shrugged before turning around prepare to leave. "I'll be calling you guys when the weapon is ready, until that time, see ya."

"Wait!" Before Chian could leave, Neptune stopped her.

"What is it?"

"I..." Neptune took a deep breath to calm herself. "I just wanted to say... I'm sorry..." as she said that, Chian tilteld her head in confusion. "If... if only we're not duped so easily by that guy, we might have come earlier to fight that robot, we might have saved your factory. It's... It's my fault that your factory ended up like this." Neptune said while looking downwards.

After a few moments dijesting Neptune's words. Chian smiled a little, reached down and put her hand on top of Neptune's head.

"Don't worry about it, once we won the Expo, this will all over. All that I need is to borrow your strength, okay?" Chian asked and Neptune slowly nodded.

And with that, Chian leaves.

To be Continued...


	21. The Sanctuary

Sitting in the bathtub, Neptune sighed as she relaxed her body, letting the warm water taking out her exhaustment from the hardwork she had done today.

Ever since that day when Avenir revealed their true intention to exterminate her, whenever the party entered a dungeon to do some quest, Avenir machines will always be there, waiting for them, or to be exact, waiting for Neptune.

"Could this be the true meaning of what that woman said?" Neptune asked herself, recalling what the stalker had said to her on their last encounter.

_"This entire landmass will eventually assault Neptune. Don't ever forget that!"_

She lost in her thoughts for a a few minutes, and was brought back to reality when someone knocked the bathroom's door.

"Nep-Nep, are you done yet? I can't hold it anymore!" Compa's stuttering voice could be heard from the other side of the door.

Deciding that she's done for now, Neptune stands up, grabbed the towel that she put nearby, and wrapped it around her slender little body.

Opening the door, she let Compa in while she walked towards their bedroom, where she found IF sitting on one of the bed, texting on her phone.

"Watcha' texting there Iffy?" Neptune asked, taking a peek at IF's phone, much to IF annoyance as Neptune's wet purple hair covered her view.

"Can you at least dry your head first? The droplets gets everywhere!" IF complained, looking at Neptune in annoyance.

Neptune complied, and head over to the desk where she used the hairdryer to dry her hair. "So, who is it?" she asked again.

"It's Chian." IF answered. "She told me that she was currently working on the sword's improvement, promising that all of the deficiency that you listed will be fixed." IF explained, still focus on her phone.

"That's good." Neptune replied with a nod while she combing her hair. "Once the improvement's done, nobody can stop this Nep from taking down that wicked evil company!" Neptune said with determination in her voice, along with a confident smile on her face.

"Why are you being so serious all of a sudden?" IF asked, finally put her phone down and looked at Neptune. "Seriously, ever since that day, you're always getting tensed whenever Avenir is mentioned more often than before. What's wrong with you?" IF asked in confusion.

"Because I'm SO MAD at them for what they did to Chian!" Neptune exclaimed, slamming down the comb to the table. "Don't you feel mad at them too?" she asked while glaring at IF.

"No." IF calmly replied. "Not as mad as you are." she answered with a shrug.

Growling a little, Neptune took a breath to calm herself down, before walked over to her bed, where she put her clothes some time ago.

"I'm sorry, it was just... I just can't stand around doing nothing when someone else's life has been ruined in front of me." Neptune said softly while dressing up. "My pain of unable to remember the past, forgetting everything, from my favourite food to everyone that I loved, is barely enough for me to bear. But when it was my friends' lives however-"

Neptune line was cut short when she felt a hand on her shoulder, looking back, she found that it was IF's hand, she was looking at the purplette with a serious expression.

"You've not the only one that suffer in here you know." IF said gently squeezed Neptune's shoulder. "Ten years ago, when I was just merely a small child. Both of my parents died because they were attacked by monsters on their way to home." IF began, while Neptune listened closely. "I was at my home when that happen, didn't know what's going on, and keep waiting for them to be back home. I waited, and waited, and waited, until I eventually tired of waiting and decided to find them." IF took a breath to calmed herself. "It took some efforts and time, but eventually, I learned the truth, and when that happen, I felt like my entire world has died."

IF letting out a soft sigh as she diminished her sentence, it was not easy to share a painful memory to someone else, even though it was her own friend.

"Then... how come you grew up?" Neptune asked in curiosity.

"Well, ever since that day, I swear to myself that one day, I would become strong, and with my strength, I will take my revenge to the monsters that made my life a living hell like this." IF explained, and then her serious expression was replaced with a little smile on her face. "But that was temporary," she said. "One day, a guild agent caught me in the middle of my training, and he said that I have some potential inside me, he invited me to join the guild, and I agree." IF's smile grew larger. "It was in there I grew up and getting stronger. Eventually, I learned that vengeance is too small for a dream, I wanted to do something with more impact to this world. And so, the reason why I fight and kill monster now is because for people safety and not vengeance." IF finished her story with a big smile on her face.

"I see..." Was the only replied from Neptune along with a small nod. Without any word, she wears the rest of her outfit silently.

"The point is, don't give into your anger, because being angry won't solve anything." IF said before returned to her bed.

After things has settled, the party sleep on their respective beds, ready for another hard work that awaits them tomorrow.

* * *

Later in the morning...

The girls were just sitting around in the hotel room, when suddenly, IF expression become serious, as she was busy in her phone.

"...No, no, no!" She muttered aloud. "The Sanctuary group driven out by the Parliament... I can't find them anywhere!" she said glaring intensly at the pink phone.

"The Sanctuary serves the CPU and goes on missionary quest, right?" Neptune asked and both IF and Compa nodded at the same time. "Oooh, so if we find 'em, we might get to bump fist with the goddess directly!" Neptune exclaimed energetically.

"You just thought of that?" IF asked with a deadpan look, before shrugged. "Well, it doesn't matter because despite my efforts, I can't locate them... unless..." she closed her eyes and put her hand on her chin. After several moments, IF opened her eyes. "We might have to speak with another heretic to get some answer..."

"You think a heretic would really know anything?" Neptune asked.

"People can't be oblivious to all this information-snuffing by the Parliament." IF answered. "The heretics don't care about that, right?" she asked and Neptune just nodded a little.

"Girls it's time for work." Compa said as she put down her phone. "I heard an old, helpless man is being attacked by creatures outside of town!" she explained, before putting her phone into her nurse bag. "We gotta save him!"

"That must be one of them, what a lucky coincidence." Neptune said with a smile, before stand up, picked her sword and exited the room, followed by her companions.

* * *

"Well, there they are, waiting for their prey." Neptune muttered as she looked at the Avenir machines that already waiting for them inside the cave they currently in.

"Seems like the monsters didn't get disturbed by their precence at all." IF muttered. "It was like the machines itself was a monster."

"Well, just like Chian said, the entire company itself is monster." Pulling out her gun, Neptune jumped into the battlefield and start firing bullets at the monsters in front of her, with IF backing her up, and Compa stayed in place, sniping the monsters with her syringe.

A giant Cobra snake monster stand up, it stick it's tongue out and hissed, with it's head pointed towards IF.

As she inspect the monster, Neptune noticed the kind of fangs that the Cobra had, and quickly warned her friend. "Iffy, watch out!"

Her guess is right, the Cobra opened it's mouth, and from it, it shoots it's venom, aiming for IF's eyes.

But since she had already warned, IF quickly ducked down to avoid it, and the venoms are only hit her hair. "Ugh, you bastard!" IF pulled out her handgun and used it to shoot the Cobra several times on it's head and mouth. "That'll take some time to clean it up!"

After they killed all of the monsters, they ventured deeper into the cave until they meet a giant humanoid creature, but unlike anything they encountered before, this creature only have one eye, and it's located right above where it's nose located. The creature wears some heavy metal armor, and caries a club.

"The eye, it's weakness must be it's eye." Neptune said to her companions, as they prepared themselves.

"How did you know, Nep-Nep?" Compa asked curiously.

"Well... I played this one game a while ago, in it, whenever the protagonist encounters a creature that has one eye, he always rips it off to kill them." Neptune answered.

"Right." IF nodded, pulling out her handgun, she shoots the cyclops for several times, but all of the bullets that she fired at it all bounce away once they hit it's metal armor.

"Looks like it's another bulletproof monster." Neptune muttered before taking out her sword and jumped into the battlefield.

"I'll be helping Nep. Compa, if you can, try to shoot it's eye, see if what Nep said os true." IF said before following Neptune into the battle field.

"Right." with a nod, Compa put her syringe down, waiting for the right moment to use it.

Neptune ducked, at the incoming swing from the cyclops club, after she avoided it, she use her sword to hit the area that didn't covered by armour, however, it was revealed that the cyclops skin was more thick and harder than they imagine, and so Neptune's sword ended up only managed to scratch the surface of the skin.

"It looks like the skin itself was also really thick and hard." Neptune muttered as she looked at the small damage she aplied to the creature.

With the help of IF, the two girls battled the one-eyed creature, trying their hardest to deliver massive damage at it.

After some efforts and time, the Cyclops has become noticeably tired, it swung it's club down at Neptune who blocked it with her sword.

"Compa, now!" IF yelled at her peach-haired friend in the distance who quickly nodded and aim her syringe towards the Cyclops' eye.

"Compa's Love Heart!" Compa pushed the plunger, and send the pink heart towards the Cyclops, accurately hit it right on it's eyeball, making it cried out in pain while clutching it's face.

"It's time." Green energy appeared on IF's hand. "La Delphinus!" A white circle rune appeared below the Cyclops, and then a pillar of light erupted in the center of it, engulfing the beast.

After the light fade, the Cyclops was still alive, but didn't have any energy left to even stand.

Neptune climbed to the top of the fallen beast, pulling out her handgun she aimed it's eyeball, and pull the trigger, killing it.

Jumped to the ground, she looked around the cave and couldn't find any monsters exist. "Looks like we cleared this area. Let's go guys." her companions nodded, and they continued their search.

* * *

Walking down a tunnel, the party spotted what it looks like to be a tent, made out of leather, in the distance, along with an old man, sitting in front of it, with a wodden stick rested on his legs.

They approach him, and when the old man noticed their presence, he tensed up.

"Who might you be? You're not here to sightsee... What do you want?" He immediately asked with his guards up.

"As expected, another heretic. I'm glad you seem able enough to carry on a normal conversation." IF muttered softly.

"We're looking for the Sanctuary group who got the boot by Parliament. Watcha knoe about that?" Neptune asked, trying as nicely as possible.

The old man made an 'oh' expression, before clearing his throat. "I heard they relocated to Colline, where the old Basilicom used to be..." he explained.

"What a convenient answer!" Neptune exclaimed softly. "So easy! We got all the info we needed right off the bat."

"...Are you not thinking of returning to the town?" Compa asked.

"Returning? No point." he shook his head. "The messenger isn't revealing itself. We've all been forsaken." he said with a serious expression.

"The... messenger? Why are you waiting for this person? What will the messenger come and do, anyway?" Compa asked with curiousity.

"The messenger would have taught us the way to salvation, away from Overlord Momus's clutches..." he explained, before sighing. "But it's useless now."

The party only nodded a little at the answer.

"...Is there anything else?" he asked and the party shook their heads. "Leave if you're done." he said, pointing the stick towards the way the party comes.

* * *

It was nighttime, and the party decide that it was the right time to go to the old Basilicom, where the Santuary group hides from the Parliament.

"Man, it really cold out here." Neptune muttered, crossing her arms, shivering under the cold temperature of Lastation's night.

"I-It's really dark and creepy here. W-Why did we have to go at night time? Can we just go tomorow?" Compa complained, clinging to Neptune's arm, apparently she was afraid of the dark.

"Can you two just stop complaining and keep walking?" IF said in annoyance.

"B-But it really is creepy, who knows what kind of thing that would showed up?" Compa retorted.

"It'll be fine, nothing weird will showed up-"

Before IF could finish her sentence. There was a rustling sound coming from a nearby bush, and from the bush, a man dressed in a police-like attire emerge.

"Tch! Y-You girls! What're you doing here? You're not Bravo Team..." the strange man said, and now that he was completely out of the bush, the party could see that he was carrying a gun.

"Whoa! Right back at ya! You're in a crazy police outfit and you got a neato gun..." Neptune said, backing away a little bit, fearing that the man was going to do something not good with the gun.

"Fools! This place is dangerous. You should run!" he said.

"Wh-What do you mean?!" Compa asked nerveously.

"I'm from S.R.A.T.S., a special forces unit invertigating some evil-sounding deaths of residents." He explained himself. "I've lost my team, though..." he muttered. "Must be those zombie dogs! If you're not a master of unlocking, you should pay attention or you'll get eaten!"

"Secret forces? Zombie dogs? Have you been playing too much of something?" Neptune asked in absolute confusion.

Ignoring her, the man continues. "One warning. Ammo is limited, so make sure you aim for the heads!"

He then walked past them, looking at them for the last time. "I'm heading out now. Be careful, ladies. Man, I'm itchy. Itchy. Tasty. G-Good luck!"

And with that, he walked away, leaving them in total confusion.

"Uh... okay..." the party said unison.

After a few minutes of walk, the party spotted a building in the distance, it looks pretty worn down and was just a few years before collapse.

"That must be it." IF muttered, approaching the building.

"I hope someone is really there. That place looms way too haunted for normal people to live." Compa muttered, in a low tone.

When they got in front of the building, they didn't see any lights coming out from the windows.

"I d-don't see any lights... Maybe Mr. Heretic was wrong. I think we c-can still go home." Compa stuttered, her grips on Neptune's arm tightened, and her legs are ready to ran back home.

"Don't even think about running away with your butt between your legs!" Neptune said as she pulled Compa who was trying to get away, towards her. "You've got me here." and then, without any hesitation, Neptune approached the door and knocked several times. :Excuse us, we're coming in!"

The door opened, and when it fully open, a man with a gun on his hand appeared before them.

"Stop! Are you part of Avenir, or are you from the Parliament?!" the man asked, her finger on the trigger.

"Whoa! Wh-Wh-What's up with this?" Neptune asked in surprise as more men appeared, holding them at gunpoint. "Do we look like bonanza sisters or something?" she asked.

Once the men's realize who was they pointed their gun to, they lowered their guns.

"...Oh, just a few little girls." someone that could be their leader, muttered. "I'm sorry. We're not used to visitors." he explained. "Are you selling cookies?" he asked.

"No." Compa shook her head. "You all seem so tense. Is someone trying to hurt you or something?" she asked.

"Very much so." He said with a nod. "Avenir's automated weaponry have already paid a visit to a few of us." he explained.

"What? Why whould they do that?" Neptune asked. "Wouldn't taking over the Basilicom would be enough for them?"

"They'll never rest until every one of us are dead." he said in a very serious tone. "Even after driven out, the public eye still believes we're part of the Basilicom's system." he gestured the party to come in, and they complied.

With the man leading them, the party entered a large room with round walls made out of glass. At the end of the room, there was a smaller room with a broken statue inside of it. The said statue was missing it's upper half, leaving only it's legs.

"Wow! The outside looked like it was about to collapse, but the inside it's no different from the other Basillicom." Compa muttered while looking around the room.

"We remodeled this room. We couldn't possibly welcome the goddess in such a filthy place." he explained. "We typically don't use this room for guest, but I'll make an exception."

"Question!" Neptune yelled while raising her hand. "Who's statue is this?" she asked while pointing at the half broken statue.

"It's the statue of the Lastation's goddess of course." he answered.

"I see..." Neptune replied softly.

"Something's wrong, Nep?" IF asked.

"I don't know, but these legs are looking familiar for some reason." Neptune answered, closely inspecting the Black Heart statue's legs.

"Maybe it's just your feeling." IF said with a shrug.

"Maybe..." Neptune replied, deciding to ignore it for now.

"We came here in hope of meeting the goddess and talk with her about Avenir, but looks like we can't." Compa said softly. "Is there anything else we can help with?" she asked.

"We'd like the assistance, but we have no solid proof of Avenir's activities due to... many reasons." the man answered.

"What about Chian's factory? It was totally crushed by Avenir. That's a whooper of proof!" Neptune pointed out.

"The Parliament will go and conceal the entire incident." he answered. "If anyone defies them, they'll be driven away like us." he then sighed heavily. "Their military and political might is engulfing Lastation from both sides."

"So there is no hope then..." Compa muttered.

"No, of course there is." the man said. "We're thinking of a countermeasure. As soon as we can find a connection between Avenir and the Parliament..."

"We worked with Avenir a few times. I remember a Basilicom member substituted once to explain our job to us." IF explained, cutting the man in mid-sentence.

"Oh, that's right." Compa exclaimed with a nod. "They were saying something scary stuff like 'dead or alive!' for some monster tissue and stuff." she explained.

"If that's true, the equipment made from the monster's tissue could be our proff." he said with a smile. "If only we could get such thing."

"I know!" Neptune raised her hand. "All those mechanical meanies that comes after me is Avenir's product, right?" Compa and IF nodded. "Then I'm sure they'll poop one out if we keep bustin' 'em up!"

"Avenir is coming after you?" the man asked in confusion.

"Well, apparently one of their employee said so, I didn't even know why would they targeted, Nep." IF explained. "But that's not the point. I don't know the odds of such a peculiar drop, but that's the only way to go about this."

"It sounds like a lot of work, but if it's for justice, I'll do it." Compa said with confident. "Even small efforts can be the seeds of great success!"

"Thank you for this invigorating discussion. We'll await your return with the hardware and expose those cretins."

The party nodded.

To be Continued...


	22. Plan Revealed

"Haven't we, uh, been here before?" Neptune asked as she looking around her surroundings.

The party was currently inside the forest where they first met with Avenir's president, Singe, several weeks ago. Since there was an Avenir facility deep inside the forest, IF thought that maybe it was the perfect place to look for the hardware they're looking for.

"It's near the facility Avenir asked us to work at before." IF answered. "I thought they'd release a robot if we walked around suspiciously, especialy with you, Nep." she explained.

"I can see why." Neptune replied as she looked at the large numbers of monsters in the area. "There are more bad guys than before. Hopefully we won't get bonked before we can get what we're looking for." she muttered softly in concern.

"I didn't think about that, really." IF replied while shrugging. "Well, whatever. I'm sure we'll be fine." she said.

"This will take too long if we stick together. Looks like we need to split up again." Compa said as she looking around the forest filled with monsters.

"I guess so. Let's meet up again in this place once you found something."

Neptune and Compa nodded, and each of them headed towards their own different directions.

After a few hours of battling and searching, the party didn't find what they're looking for, and so decide to regroup at the place before.

"We didn't find it..." Neptune said breathing havily from exhaustion. "Do we have to, like, backtrack to all the previous dungeons on this fetch quest?" she asked, before looking at IF with a pleading look. "Say it ain't so, Iffy!"

"Uh, it ain't so." IF said, sighing heavily. "Let's go back for today. I'm... tired."

They was about to leave, when a rustling sound came from behind. Looking back, the party saw a shadowy figure emerge from behind a tree.

"Wait! I see someone over there!" Compa said while pointing at the figure who approach them.

"Greetings, little ladies. Fancy meeting you here." when the figure came out of the shadow, it was revealed to be a familiar looking man with long brown hair and a pair of thick glasses on his face.

"You!" as she saw that man's face, Neptune suddenly got behind him, with her sword just mere inches away from his throat and her handgun right on his back.

"Well... this is a warm welcome." Ganache muttered with no sign of fear in his voice, despite the fact that his life was about to end at this point.

"...This is no coincidence. Avenir's solicitor and a robotic sidekick." IF said as she approached the two. "You know, it's probably difficult to have completely automated robots throughout Lastation."

"You're keen, as usual." he said with a chuckle. "All of our larger-scale machines are controlled completely." he explained.

"Then, you've been controlling the robots? All this time and forever and ever?" Neptune asked, closing the distance between her sword's blade with Ganache's throat. "Let me guess, are you controlling them to kill me?" she asked in a cold manner.

"Yes. Also, yes, all this time." he answered with a nod. "But from now on? Hmm. That's up to you." he said softly.

"Remembering what you did to us last time is pissing me off." IF said before pointed at the man. "We're taking you to the Basilicom to confess your wrongdoings."

"Can't we just finish him off right here and now?" Neptune complained in disagreement.

IF sighed at the question and shook her head. "Did you forgot about what I told you yesterday about controling your anger?" IF asked, glaring sharply at Neptune.

"But-"

"No buts!"

Neptune's eyes darting between IF and Ganache for several times, feeling unsure of what to do between falling into her anger or obey her friends.

"Tch!" Clicking her tongue, she eventually released Ganache from her death grip, putting both her sword and her gun away.

"We haven't found that hardware yet! We should interrogate him about it too." Compa whispered to IF's ear, and she nodded.

"Talk." IF commanded, and Ganache nodded.

"I'll chat more this time around. It's why I'm here. I've started to question the motives of this company." he explained, adjusting his glasses. "I've come to help you take Avenir down." he answered.

"This is too good to be true." IF replied with both Compa and Neptune nodded in agreement. "If you're trying to help, why did you attack us with your robots?" she asked.

"To see you without seeming suspicious." he answered. "I'm still an Avenir employee. Great benefits. I had to look like I was following orders." he explained, with a tone that makes it harder to accuse that he's lying.

"Well whatever, said the blind man to his deaf dog. If you're gonna bring Avenir down, what's the proof?" Neptune asked in suspicion.

"After that day, Avenir machines always come for us, every time we entered a dungeon." IF said, crossing her arms. "How did you hear about Neptune? Why did you try to get rid of her?" she asked.

"That was the company's order." He answered. "I was told to keep you girls busy while they raided the Passe factory."

IF narrowed her eyes, glaring at the man. "Your story make sense, but that doesn't mean I'm convinced."

"I'll give you the hardware you're looking for as proof. You want it, right?" He asked, and the party eventually nodded. "I'll even testify against Avenir."

"That's great! That'll give us a fighting chance against Avenir." Compa said, smiling before looking at IF. "Still not convince, Iffy?"

"You know what happened before. This is just an odd turn of events. Can we really trust him." she asked, and her companions fell silent.

"There's no reason to assume otherwise for now." Compa was the first one to talk. "Why not leave it up to the Sanctuary?" she asked.

"Santuary... Those people are at the old Basilicom, right? Please take me there. I'll tell you everything then."

After a few minutes of deciding. The party finally decide to do what Ganache told them. They brought him to the old Basilicom, letting the Sanctuary people to deal with him, while the girls goes to Chian's second restaurant, and wait for further news.

* * *

It was nighttime, the party was still in Chian's place, eating diner, while Chian herself left a few hours ago to get some materials for her project.

The restaurant door came open, and a familiar man entered the room.

"Excuse me. Am I at the right place?" the man, who turns out to be the leader of the Sanctuary group the party met yesterday, asked.

"You betcha! It's a small place, but please, scootch yourself on in." Neptune said cheerfuly. The man nodded and walked to their table and sit on the empty wodden chair.

"I wish Chian could hear you say that." IF said with a sigh, before looking at thr man. "Anyway, what did you do with the Solicitor? Kick him out?" she asked.

"No, he told us everything." he answered while shaking his head. "We also got the hardware." he said, showing the said item to the party. "We're still wary, but we've gained something we've been searching for. We'll require your help on the day of the raid." he then put the item back to his pocket.

"For real? I mean, it's the enemy base and the most important day, y'know? I guess, like, why wouldn't the heroines be there?!" Neptune said with excitement in her voice.

"I doubt they're heavily armed, since the main building is in the city's center. Still, we should take precautions." The party nodded. "We'll start on the day of the Tech Expo. Most of the employee will be there, but the rep, Singe, won't." he said with a smile.

"The day of the Expo?! We can't do it then! We've already promised Chian we would help her." Compa complained.

"Don't worry. We should have it all wrapped up by the time the Expo starts." he said, standing up. "So you'll help us, won't you?" he asked and the party nodded. "Good then. We're counting on you girls." and with that, the man leave.

Unknown to them however, someone has eavesdropping their conversation from the outside.

"On the day of the Expo, huh?" the person smiled sinisterly. "I better get things ready then." he said with a chuckle before leaved the place.

* * *

Several days had passed...

Today was the day of the Expo, people of Lastation slowly filled the stadium the show was held, even though it's still early in the morning, and a few hours from getting started.

The street was empty, and the street lights was still on. The party walked throughout the empty streets towards a ginormous building that could be seen in the distance.

In front of the building, they spotted a group of people waving at them, they are the Sanctuary people, the ones whos gonna help them raiding the building.

"Good morning, ladies. Thanks for coming." their leader said, bowing a little. "Did you see the building behind us? That's Avenir's main headquarters." he said while pointing at the building.

"Whoa... I can tell from here it's brimming with enemies. They're really giving off a villainous vibe." Compa muttered in amazement.

"I don't know why, but it looks like they're already abandoned their 'wholesome corporation' front." he said as she looked at the front door of the building that was empty without any security whatsoever.

"They must've sensed the Sanctuary was coming." IF muttered softly. Isn't it odd? Why wouldn't they try to cover up evidence this time?" she asked to no one in particular.

"Ooh, I've seen it on TV shows before. They shred and burn paperwork and rub big magnets on their computers, right?" Neptune asked, getting weird looks from everyone.

"I understand the words you speak, but they make no sense." the leader sweatdropped. "Let's press on and deal with what they have in store for us." the party nodded and they approached the front gate. "Once we get inside, we slit up to make things easier. Remember, our primary goal is to capture Avenir's Representative, Singe."

And with that, everyone entered the building, and imediately split up into several groups.

* * *

"No one's here, are they all went to the Expo?" Compa asked to no one in particular as she walked through some empty hallways.

"I guess so, this is beyond weird at this point." IF replied. "Why would they leave their headquarters empty like this? They must've up to something, something bad." she muttered softly.

"Let's just find Mr. Singe and go to the Expo as fast as possible, this place creeping me out."

A few minutes had passed, and they still can't found the company's president, no matter how many rooms they have to check.

"This is tiring me out, my legs feels like noodle." Compa complained, she fell into the ground due to exhaustion.

"Come on, we can't stop right now." IF said offering Compa a hand to stand up.

"But I can't walk anymore." Compa complained again.

"Wait, I see something!" Neptune exclaimed getting her friend's attention.

"What did you see, Nep?" IF asked.

"Looked at that!" Neptune pointed a room that has bright light coming out of it on the second floor. "So far that's the only room that has it's lamp turned on, isn't that kinda weird?" Neptune asked.

"Yeah, it kinda does." IF said with a nod.

"Let's get in there, maybe that's where Singe was."

After some times, they found an elevator, and used it to go to the second floor, where the room is located.

They approached the room, and read a sign on the room's door.

"The Solicitor? So this is Ganache's office, I wonder why he left his room's lamp on." IF muttered softly

They opened the door and entered the room to find no one is there. They spend some time to investigate the room, but they didn't find anything useful.

They were about to leave when Compa complained again.

"Iffy... can we rest for a bit?" Compa complained.

"But we don't have much time left, there's only one hour left before the Expo started." IF retorted.

"But I can't walk anymore..."

"Ugh, fine, one minute." IF said with a sigh.

"Yay!" And with that, Compa flopped herself into a nearby chair that was actually Ganache's chair.

The moment, Compa's body touched the chair, there was a click sound, and everybody turned their heads towards a bookshelf that move by it's own.

"Oh my goodness, I can't believe it! A secret entrance!" Neptune exclaimed in amazement as the bookshelf move to the side, revealing a secret passageway that leads into something unknown.

"It's so dark in there, I can't see anything." Neptune said as she looked at the dark passage.

"We can use the flashlight in my phone. Shall we go there?" IF asked, Neptune and Compa nodded.

IF give Neptune one of her phone, and together, the three of them explored the dark passageway.

After a few minutes of walking, they finally arrived in a room at the end of the tunnel. The room was completely dark, and the girls' flashlight wasn't enough for them to see their surroundings.

"There must be a switch somewhere around here, but where is it?"

Just as IF stepped into the room, hundreds of lights on the ceiling turned on by itself, blinding the party for a couple of seconds.

After they adjusted to the brightness, the party looked around the room. The secret room they was in turned out to be gigantic, it's wide and long is more than hundreds of meters.

"What the hell is this room?" IF asked in confusion, she noticed that the room has two story, and they were currently at the second story.

There was a railing nearby, the party approached it, and looked down at the ground floor, their eyes imediately widened in shcock.

"What... the Nep... is this?" Neptune said in absolute shock.

What they saw on the ground floor was hundreds or even thousands of Avenir machines. All of the machines was pretty advanced, each of them has weapons in their bodies, no doubt that this was an army, an army of machines.

"Th-They create an army! An army of machines! Chian was right, they are planning to replace everything in Lastation with machines!" Compa said in panic.

"We gotta contact everyone." IF said before pulling out her phone, calling the Sanctuary people to come into the room.

Neptune was about to say something, but something else caught her attention.

At the end of the room, there was a door leading to a smaller room, and Neptune could see a dim light coming out from it.

"Hey, Iffy, Compa, did you guys see that room?" Neptune asked while pointing at the said room.

"That must be Singe's office. Let's go." the party nodded, and they headed towards the room.

When the girls entered the room, they saw a figure covered in shadows standing in front of them.

"Singe, is that you? Show yourself this very instant!" Neptune demanded, pulling out her sword in case if something get dangerous.

"Hello! We've been running into each other a lot lately." the party all jerked in surprise when they hear that voice. The figure step out of the shadows, revealing itself to be Avenir's solicitor, Ganache. "Unfortunately, Singe is not in his office."

"Solicitor? The hell're you doing here? This is the least favorable outcome!" IF muttered aloud, taking out her katars.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ganache asked, tilting his head a little bit.

"We expected Singe. I can't believe we were tricked again. Let me guess, are you the mastermind behind that army of machines we saw?" Neptune asked, her voice is full serious.

"The president went to attend the Expo. And yes, you're right. I am the one who made those magnificent army of machines that you just saw." Ganache said with a smile.

"...What do you want from us? Why were you waiting here?" Compa asked.

"Because... you would come." Ganache answered. "The army that you saw is what I've made behind Avenir, it was complete, and it's only a matter of time before I released them to do their job." he explained.

"Behind Avenir? Does that mean you are..."

"That's right." Ganache answered with a nod. "I've manipulated everything from the start up to this point. Ever since I heard about the Console War many years ago." he explained. "I chose a small company on the verge of bankruptcy and created a bond between them and the Parliament."

"So, you're the founder of Avenir? For what? Just... who are you?!"

Ganache smiled, adjusting his glasses. "I'm the head of an Extremist Guild from Lowee. We're the believers of Lastation's Lady Black Heart. She only does everything." he then pulled out a trigger from his pocket. "Our objective is simple... Neptune! Our job is to kill her and take over her landmass!"

"Kill me? Taking over my landmass? That's your objective? So, Avenir was just a means to get to me?" Neptune asked.

"Yes! I created Avenir to develop weaponry that gathers all the advanced technology of Lastation." He explained. "But that's not all, once I've done with you, with the help of the army that I created, your homeland will be ours!"

"My homeland... does that mean... Planeptune?! You're going to take over Planeptune?" Neptune asked in shock.

"Yes, and eventually all of Gamindustri." Ganache nodded. "And it all will happens, once I push this trigger, right here." Ganache raise his thumb, prepared to push the trigger, and activate the entire army.

"Wait! Don't push it!" Neptune yelled, running towards him, trying to stop him from pushing the trigger.

"Too... late..."

_Click_

To be Continued...


	23. Lastation Showdown

"Too... Late..." Ganache said as he pressed his thumb into the button of the trigger that would activate the entire army of machines.

_Click_

As Ganache's thumb fully pressed the button of the trigger in his hand, the party cringed and closed their eyes shut, preparing for the worse to happen.

Seconds passed, which turned into minutes. Nothing happened.

The party slowly opened their eyes, looking at their surroundings, nothing's happened.

"What?!" Surprised at the turns of event, Ganache pushed the trigger for the second time, nothing happen, and then the third time, again, nothing is happening. "What the hell is going o-"

Using this opportunity, Neptune quickly lunge forward, got in front of him, and...

***Smack!***

Ganache loudly cried out in pain as he put his hand on his thighs, trying to ease out the pain after getting kicked real hard by Neptune on his crotch.

Yep, **real hard.**

As he fell into the floor, whining, the Sanctuary people entered the room, and after some brief explanation by IF, they quickly restraint Ganache and handcuffed him.

Picking up the trigger from the ground, IF inspected the the item closely. "It looks like this thing is broken. Thank goodness for that." IF said, sighing in relief.

"Y-Yeah." Compa agreed with a nod. "I thought we were done for." she also sighed in relief.

Walking out of the room, Neptune approached the ralings and looked down. "I think we should check the army down there." Neptune said as she leaned on the railings of the second floor, viewing the massive army of machines below. "We have to make sure if that remote doesn't turn anything on."

"Yes." Both IF and Compa who followed her, nodded in unison.

Before they could do anything, the Sanctuary group leader approached them.

"Great job ladies. With this massive army of machines here, and with the Solicitor has been captured, we have more than enough proof to accuse Avenir. On the behalf of the Sanctuary, we would like to say, thank you, we will forever on your debt." The leader said while bowing down in respect.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Neptune said with a smile. "But we better check those machines quickly, the Expo is about to start in three minutes." Neptune noted, pointing at the ground floor.

"Right, you girls go ahead to the Expo, we will take care the rest in here." The leader said before he and his men goes downstairs to investigate.

"Okay then, let's go everyone." Compa and Iffy nodded, the three turned and prepared to go to the Expo.

"If... If you think... this is over yet, you had another thing coming." a voice from their left said.

Neptune stopped in her tracks when she heard that, she turned her head to the left and saw Ganache was chained to a pipe on the nearby wall.

"And what do you mean by that?" Neptune asked carefully approaching the chained man.

"Nep, we don't have time for this! The Expo is gonna start." IF protested, crossing her arms.

"Actually, the thing that I'm about to tell you is concerning both the Expo and you." Ganache said, his face are facing downwards.

"What is it? Tell me!" Neptune demanded, glaring intensely at the man.

Sighing, Ganache shook his head slowly. "Did you forgot what I've said about the weapon that I made just to kill you?" Ganache asked, looking up, staring at Neptune's eyes.

Confused, Neptune tilted her head a little. "A weapon that you made just to kill me?" putting her hand on her chin, Neptune thought for a second. "You... did." and then, something snapped in her mind, she looked at Ganache in shock. "Wait, don't tell me-"

"That's right." Ganached answered with a nod. "That weapon is what await you at the Expo. I was originally planned to have it elimate you first, before I released the army, but now that my grand plan is ruined. This is my last and only chance to defeat you." he smiled sinisterly. "Several days ago when I realized that Avenir is done, and I don't need it anymore, I secretly sabotaged the weaponry that we made, programming it to set you as it's main target when you're around." he explained while looking at Neprune. "When you're not around, while it was activated however, it will simply gone berserk."

"Does that mean...?"

"Yes." Ganache nodded. "The machine will not obey anyone, not even the president, Singe. Once he activated it at the Expo, it will automatically kill him and the people around him. Unless if you hurry up and get there, that will happen." he with an evil smirk.

"You bastard!"

Ganache only chuckled as a respons. "Oh yes, there will be blood!" he said with a sinister grin.

Before he could say any more words, he gets a pretty powerful punch in the face from Neptune, snapping his glasses in half and render him unconcsious.

"Nep! You've gone too far!" IF protested, glaring at Neptune sharply.

"There's no time for argument, millions of people are in great danger if we're not hurry! Come on!" Neptune retorted before running away into the secret passage.

IF growled at her friend's anticts, but decide to ignore it for now, since she was right about people in danger. "Let's go Compa!" Compa nodded and the two followed Neptune throughout the building and into the opening.

They could only hope they would arrive before something bad happen.

* * *

"There it is, that's the stadium!" Neptune said between pant, running as fast as she could. Her friends following behind her.

As they got in front of the front door, they took several seconds to catch up their breath.

"Iffy... are you... already contacted Chian?" Compa asked between pant.

"Yeah... I ask her to meet us here." IF answered.

"Guys!" the party turned to see Chian approaching them. "Where did you girls go? The exhibition match between Passe and Avenir is just about to start."

"The Expo wasn't really important, there is far more important things you need to know!" Neptune answered with a serious tone.

"What? What is it?" Chian asked curiously.

The party then proceed to explain the army of machines that they found at Avenir's headquarters to Chian.

"This is unbelievable! I can't believe he's been plotting this behind us all this time." Chian said in surprise.

"That's not all, the solicitor was also sabotaged the machine that Avenir will showcast today. We have to destroy it imediately, once Singe activate the robot, it will automatically targets everyone around it and kill them, including himself." Neptune explained in a very serious tone.

Chian eyes widened when she heard what Neptune just said. "That's so horrible. Singe is going to use it in the match against my weapon." she said.

"We better prepared then." Neptune said, with both Compa and IF nodded in unison.

Pushing the door open, and entered the stadium, the party saw at the end of the stadium that Singe was on the top of a stage, standing behind a podium, delivering a speech to the crowd of people in front of him.

"Man-made products sometimes provoke unexpected, unfortunate incidents. I've gone throught it personally." Singe said, looking at the crowd in front of him.

"Whoa, look at that robot! Is that what Avenir prepared for the expo...?" Compa asked, pointing at the strong looking robot behind singe.

The said giant robot has a humanoid body with thin legs but a very large pair of thighs, thin waist and a large chest. It shoulders are rounded so big that it could be mistaken as it was it's heads. It's forearms have blades attached to them. It has a ridiculously small body and giant wings on it's back. And lastly, on it's chest, there was a container that contains something that glows brightly with rainbow color.

As she stared at the distinctive feature of the machine, for some reason Neptune felt there was a burning sensation on her chest, like there was something that made her attracted to the thing on the container. Neptune shook her head, deciding to ignore the sensation for now.

"It's main purpose is to take down Neptune." IF muttered as she observed the machine. "It looks like it's only function is to destroy."

"I do not wish to make the same mistake. That's why I'm replacing all of humanity with machinery!" Singe continued. "These precise machines, made fron the imprecise hands of humans!"

"I don't get it." Neptune said in confusion. "He hate humans and totally dig machines, so... does that mean he'd prefer dating a buncha tools?" She asked, Compa and IF just smirked at the question.

"He... He can't trust any products he makes himself." Chian answered with a sigh.

When they heard that, everyone turned to looked at her.

Chian closed her eyes. "He's deathly afraid of hurting someone with a product he created and he's shouldering everyone else with that fear." Chian explained, before opened her eyes and pulled out a mechanical weapon's hilt that was looking far more advanced than the last one.

Turning to Neptune, Chian handed her the mechanical hilt.

"Use my weapon to show him how trustworthy a man-made, future-proof product can be! And take down Avenir along with that robot over there."

Neptune smiled and nodded. "Heck yeah! I'll strike Avenir's robot in its weak point for some crazy damage!" Neptune said, taking the weapon's hilt and looked at the distinctive feature of her oponent. 'Which I'm guessing was that container.'

"It's not quite our original plan, but this should be the most impressive demonstration ever!" Chian said with a smile. "I'm counting on you."

Nodding, Neptune looked at her companions and gestured her head towards the stage. "Let's rumble."

The crowd stepped aside, creating a way for the party to walk. As they approach the stage Neptune tapped IF's shoulder for several times before whispered something to the brunette's ear.

"Remember Iffy, this thing are made to kill me, let me take the lead, you and Compa back me up." Neptune whispered.

IF nodded. "Yeah, I know, but please be careful."

"I will."

They climbed up the stairs and got in front of the robot. "Now that I looked closely, it really is looking very advanced." Compa muttered.

"Are both of the participants ready?" the announcer asked, and both the party and Singe nodded.

"I hope you programed your toy to know how to fight, Singe. Because he doesn't know what he was up against." Neptune said while possitioning herself.

"This machine is perfect! Too perfect to defeat all of you in one single swing!"

"Oh yeah? Then I better make sure that once we're through with him, he will become nothing more than a mere can opener." Neptune said, igniting the mechanical hilt, a purple beam saber erupted from it's end.

Once everyone pulled out their respective weapons, Singe pulled out a remote, and with it he activated the robot.

The robot wake up with a start, it's eyes glowing, and electric sparks could be seen inside the container that housed the rainbow colored glowing item. Neptune felt the same burning sensation on her chest coming back, and it makes her distracted. 'I have to see what was in there.' she thought, as she glared at it.

"And now, let the Exhibition Match begin!" the announcer said while throwing his hand into the air.

The crowd of people slowly backs off, creating enough distance for the battle to not hurt any spectators in there.

The robot moves, it approach the party at high speed despite it's ginormous size. It's eyes focus solely on Neptune. Every steps it took, the stage shook. It raise it's weapon which attached to it's forearms, then brings it down on her.

The party dodge it by rolling to the side, letting the weapon hit the stage floor instead, the attack leave a giant crater on the floor.

"Looks like this guy is no joke." Neptune muttered, standing up she rushed towards the robot.

She tried to attack it's leg, but the robot blocked it with it's hand. The robot then tried to use it's other hand to grab Neptune, but it was stopped when Compa used her magic attacks to launch a giant pink heart towards the hand, cancelling it's attack.

Rolling through between the robot's legs. Neptune pulled out her handgun and used it to shoot the container, once the robot turned around to face her. However, despite it's appearance, the container was far more powerful than she imagine. The bullets were all simply bounce away once they hit the glass wall of the container, not even leaving a single scratch.

Suddenly, several canons emerges from the robot's legs, each of them fires laser beams, unprepared for this, Neptune got blasted away by the attack, sending her crashing against the wall.

Before she could get back to her feet, the robot was already in front her. It raised it's weapon and bring it down to her.

However, before the robot could kill her, Compa used her Arcane shell ability to create a ball of energy that she launched to the ceiling. As the ball fires multiple energy beams to the robot, Neptune used the opportunity to get away to safety. The ball of energy then shoots a massive beam that hit the robot directly at it's head. Finally, the energy ball turned into multiple of smaller energy balls that hit the robot in various place.

After the attack ended, the robot was still standing, but with several parts of it's body starting to crack.

"Man, he's really tough!" IF muttered as she rolled to the side to avoid an attack from the robot. Standing up, she extended her hand towards the robot. "Demonic Inferno!" several explosion appeared around the robot before a giant flame erupted from the ground, engulfing the robot with fire.

However, that's still not enough. As the battle continues on, the party starting to get tired, while their opponents shows no sign of near being defeated.

"Apocalypse Nova!" IF screamed as she jumped high into the air, firing several energy needles that pinned down the robot in place. She then launch herself towards the robot, then used her katars to slash it right on it's head, a small explosion then erupted on the place where she hit it.

Looking back at her opponent, the robot's head cracked, and the crack quickly spread through the head before eventually, the head shattered into pieces that fell into the floor, revealing that there was another head inside of it.

"So that head that Iffy destroyed, was a mask, and this head was it's true head." Neptune muttered.

"Then it's our chance! We just have to destroy that head to defeat him!" Compa said, glad that the battle is almost over.

"But how are we gonna do that?" Neptune asked.

"Simple." IF replied looking at Compa. "Are you ready Compa?"

"Anytime!" Compa Nodded

As the robot coming at them with high speed, both Compa and IF rolled to the left and right side, as they got to the robot sides, each of the pointed their respective weapon towards the robot's head.

"Heart Force!" the two yelled in unison.

Compa shoots a ginormous heart from her syringe, which five times bigger from the pink heart she used before. While IF shoots a dark beam from her katars. The two attacks sandwiched the robot's head, completely blasting it off from it's place.

After losing it's head, the robot's movement become unstable, it aimlessly walking around the stages before eventually collapse into the floor.

With the winner and the loser is clear, the jury raise his hand. "And the winner is... Passe!" as she said this, the crowd all cheered and clapped their hands.

"We did it!" Compa cheered hapilly.

"Yeah, we did." IF nodded with a smile.

"And with this, Avenir will come to an end." Neptune continued. She tilt her head to the side, and saw Singe was approaching his collapsed creation, Chian was behind him.

"...How? How could an impercise ape girl's machine take down Lastation's most advanced technology?!" Singe asked to no one in particular, looking at the downed robot with the mixture of confusion, sadness, and surprise expression.

"I donno how you two became rivals, but I betcha I know why we won." Neptune said as she and her companions approaching them. "Chian's weapons are warm. Yours are cold." Neptune answered, Singe just looked at her in confusion.

"That's right." Chian nodded, Singe turned his head towards her. "I used everything you tossed away to make my weapons, including the human heart!"

As the three continued to talk, IF just crossed her arms and sighed. "Hmm. This is touching, but I wish we could've had a good closing comment, too." she said, closing her eyes.

"Chian and Nep-Nep did a good job for us, though." Compa said, looking at the three.

* * *

"Very disappointing..."

A mysterious figure, dressed in a cloak that covered their entire body except for their mouth and it's surroundings, said in disgust.

"This is what you called a grand plan? Only to get failed after years of preparement?"

The figure, who was on top of the stadium, watching the entire fight through the windows on the ceiling, asked to no one in particular.

"Hmph. I guess in the end, it's still up to me to take care of things."

The person raised their hand, and a dark energy formed on their palm.

Grinning evily, the person sends the dark energy into the collapsed robot bellow without anyone noticing.

After they're done fully sending the dark energy. They turned around and walked away, before disappear in a flash of light.

* * *

"I don't understand... what... was wrong with this?" Singe muttered softly.

"The point is you-"

Before Chian could finish her sentence, everyone was surprised when the fallen machine suddenly jerked by itself. Electric sparks starting to appear throughout it's body.

"Wh-What is going on?" IF asked in surprise and confusion, when the robot starting to move by itself.

Neptune then noticed that the container on the robot's chest are no longer emits a rainbow light, instead, the item inside of it was now emitting a dark light.

As the headless robot slowly stands up. Singe pulled out a remote and tapped several buttons in it.

"What is happening? I can't control it!" Singe said, not knowing that the robot was glaring at him, even though it was no longer have it's head. The headless robot raised it's weapon and swung it towards Singe.

"Look out!" Neptune yelled as she leaped into the air and tackled Singe into the ground, taking the attack instead. Neptune cried out in pain as the robot's sword slashed across her back, blood slowly coming out from her wounds.

"Nep-Nep!" Compa screamed, she approached her friend and used healing magic to recover her wounds.

While she was busy treating Neptune's wound. The headless robot has gone crazy, it aimlessly running around the stadium, swinging it's hand like it was attacking something. The robot was not only destroyed everything in the stadium, but it also bashing itself to the wall, making the enttire stadium shook.

People are screaming in terror, they ran to the exit as quickly as possible, however, as the headless robot continues to bash itself to the walls, the ceiling collapse, and the rubble blocked the exit, trapping hundreds of people that's still in there.

"Oh no... what've I done?" Singe asked himself, slumping to his knees in despair. "It shouldn't have end like this..."

"We have to stop that thing, but we also have to rescue the people." Compa muttered, looking at the scene in concern. "What should we do?"

As she watched the robot aimlesly running around the stadium, attacking several people in process. Neptune felt the burning sensation again, and this time, she didn't ignore it. She closed her eyes, and think.

After several seconds of thinking, she opened her eyes. "I know what we have to do." everyone looked at her. "I want all of you help the people find a way out of this place, while I distracted the monster." Neptune answered, making everyone gasped.

"You can't be serious, Nep!" IF yelled grabbing Neptune by the collar. "Who the hell do you think you are? A hero? A savior? If you're going to take that beast down, we have to do it together!" IF complained, while Compa was merely nodded.

"I was the reason Avenir was created!" Neptune retorted, with both Singe and Chian looking at her in surprise and confusion. "You heard what that solicitor and stalker said, I was the enemy of Lastation, that wretched evil company are created merely as a way to elimimate me." Neptune said. "I was nothing more than a girl who lost her memory..." she muttered softly. "If only for that sole reason, I wouldn't want to save the world..." she then looked at IF. "But at least..." she then looked at the people who getting attacked by the headless machine. "Let me save them... let me save those people... please..." she said, a single tear dropped from her eyes.

IF was speechless, she couldn't stand seeing the purplenette's cry. The sight of Neptune's crying are too much for anyone to handle.

Slowly, she let go of Neptune. Taking a deep breath, she nodded. "Okay, but please, be carefull, and come back alive."

Neptune smiled. "Don't worry, I will."

Igniting her sword, Neptune run towards the headless robot, distracting it long enough for IF, Compa, Chian, and Singe to get everyone out.

"Hey, no head! I'm down here!" Neptune yelled while waving her hands, trying to get the robot's attention.

Sure enough, the robot turned around to the general direction where Neptune's voice came, then it begin to aimlessly attacking her. Neptune was able to dodge most of it's attacks, but when the time continues, the attacks become more and more intense, not to mention that she was not yet recovered from the last battle and the attack on her back.

Meanwhile, Compa and IF, followed by Chian and Singe, had gathered all of the people around the stadium, and together, they slowly cleared out the rubles that blocked the exit.

Neptune was almost at her limits, her legs was numb and almost refused to move, her eyes are blurry due to exhaustion, and her breath was ragged.

"Ooorraaaa!" With a yell, IF used all of her might to punch through the rubbles, successfully cleared out the exit for everyone.

Once the exit was cleared, the people quickly exited the building. Unfortunately, IF and Compa was getting dragged by waves of people, and was unable to move but getting dragged out the stadium.

"NEP!" IF screamed loudly, watching helplessly as she watched the tired Neptune still fighting the robot.

Hearing IF's scream, Neptune turned her head to the left and saw the last crowd of people successfully exited the building.

"We did it..." she said between pant.

She ran as fast as possible towards the exit, but her numb legs are at their limits.

Outside, once the two of them finally out of the people grasp, IF and Compa quickly headed back to the stadium entrance to help their friend.

However, something unexpected happened.

Multiple cannons emerges from the headless robot's body, all of it fires laser beams in all different direction. One of the beams, hit Neptune on her back, sending her fall to the floor face first. Another beam, hit the walls above the entrance, making it collapse and blocked the exit with more rubbles.

Both IF and Compa's eyes widened in shock at the turn of events.

"No..." IF whispered. "No... God, No! No! No! No! No!" IF screamed in frustration hitting the boulder that blocked the entrance everytime she said the word.

But she was run out of power, so does Compa, they couldn't do anything now besides hoping that miracle would happen.

Putting her head against the boulder, IF gritted her teeth, and screw her eyes shut.

"Please... please... I beg of you... please be okay... Nep..." she muttered, her voice was broken.

Compa was also hoping the same thing.

* * *

Inside the stadium...

Neptune was laying down on the floor, not moving at all. Meanwhile in front of her, there was a crazy headless robot that keep attacking the walls, not caring if she was there or not.

Neptune's eyes were half closed, multiple thoughts were crossing her mind.

'Who I am?'

_"_ _That was unfortunately cannot be answered."_

'Why I forgot everything?'

_"You don't remember? then that means, maybe you suffering from amnesia."_

'Why I care for people...'

_"By saving me, you're not only will receive the truth about yourself, but also saving countless of life all across the world, isn't that what you always wanted?"_

'When they hate me?'

 _"This entire landmass will eventually assault Neptune._ _Don't ever forget that!"_

Neptune slowly closed her eyes, ready to accept her fate.

_"You are the only one who can save Gamindustri."_

Neptune's eyes snapped open as that thought crossed her mind.

_"_ _You dare to face all of the monsters, just because of your will to protect the others from danger."_

_"Please, please... release this seal and save me!"_

_"If I remembered correctly, A faint memory of mine telling me that someone that I don't know, told me... I'm the only one who can save the world. I can save it."_

_"A beautiful princess named Histy is locked away in like a huge castle prison somewhere. She's waiting for us to save her as we speak. How can I ignore her?"_

_"All I wanted is a world of peace, where's there's no wars, no pain, no suffering. I want everyone to be happy, because their happiness is also my happiness."_

With all of these thought crossed her mind, Neptune put her hand on the floor, then pushed up, slowly standing up despite her injuries.

As she successfully standing, she glared at the crazy machine in front of her. She ignites her sword, holding the hilt with both of her hands.

"That's right, I am Neptune, the main protagonist of this story. And as the main protagonist, I would not let myself ended pathetically in this time and place. Because I will save the world!"

With a yell, Neptune charged towards the robot. Each steps that she tooks, a purple particles appeared around her, and the burning sensation in her chest become more instense.

Eventually, the purple particles turned into a purple light that engulfed Neptune's entire body.

* * *

"What's this?"

A voice that came out of a book on top of an altar, asked to no one in particular.

"Why my surroundings starting to get warm?"

And then, a small ball of purple light came out of the book, and it flies through the ceiling of the room where the book was.

"Ah! where are you going?!"

* * *

Outside the stadium...

Both IF and Compa are praying for Neptune's safety, followed by both Chian and Singe.

"Please... let a miracle happen..."

Almost like a reaction for her wish. Everyone in Lastation soon watched in awe as suddenly a pillar of light errupted from inside the stadium and into the sky through the hole on the stadium ceiling.

The pillar of light makes the noon sky even brigter, it split the clouds and caused them to twist and spiral as the result.

"What is happening in there?" Chian asked in total confusion.

After the light fade, the sound of a robot bashing itself to the walls, suddenly stopped. Instead, it was replaced by a sound of someone that rips metals appart, then tears it, then destroyed in into tiny pieces.

Their confusion then grew even more, when the headless robot suddenly got thrown into the sky, followed by a purple blur that chased after it.

After the headless machine reached the height of one kilometers, the purple blur that comes after it brings the two of them fall towards the stadium with the speed of a meteor.

When they touched the ground, a burst of purple energy errupted to the sky, allowing everyone outside of their house to see it.

Everyone outside the stadium, covered their eyes with their hands as a wave of wind washed throughout the entire Landmass.

After the wind stopped blowing. IF slowly opened her eyes, and gasped in happiness when she found the entrance was no longer blocked by the stupid boulder. She quickly went inside, followed by Compa, Chian, and Singe.

They walked through the smoke of dust that covered the entire stadium, and as they walked further, they noticed that they're no longer walked on the stadium floor, instead they're walking on scraps of metals.

After several minutes of searching, they finally found what they're looking for.

"Nep!"

"Nep-Nep!"

Neptune was unconsciousness, she was laying on top of a mountain of metal scraps that come from the now completely destroyed robots.

Compa put her hand on Neptune's neck, and sighed in relief. "She's still alive, I'm glad." Compa said, wiping some tears from her eyes.

"Let's take her back to the hotel. We need to treat her injuries." IF said, and Compa nodded.

The two put Neptune's hands on their shoulders, and they carried her to out of the stadium. However...

"Huh, so it turns out it you girls that caused the commotion I heard." a certain long white-haired lady was standing in the entrance.

Both Compa and IF's eyes widened upon seeing who was in front of them.

"Of all frickin' times, why do it have to be now!" IF growled in frustration.

"Whoa, what are you doing here?" Compa asked, pulling out her syringe. "We already extremely worn out by beating up the bad robot! If you think you can have our Nep-Nep, you'll have to stepped over my dead body!" IF merely nodded and pulled out her katars.

"It looks like you're misunderstand my precence here." the white-haired woman said. "I'm not here to fight, I came just because of the commotion I heard." she explained.

"And why should we trust you?" IF asked, glared sharply at the woman.

"Trust me, I won't do anything." She replied. "I was here because people telling me there's a giant robot went berserk and attack everybody." she answered. "I was planning to beat that robot myself. But you guys already done the job, so... well... thanks, I guess."

"This is weird, the last time we saw you, you were a vengeful, creepy stalker. What gives?" IF asked suspiciously.

"Just get your friend to safety, and treat her wounds, don't bother me." the stalker said before using her six wings to take off into the air.

As the two watched the mysterious woman flies away, their attention brought to Neptune when they heard the purplenette grunted.

"Let's just do what she said Iffy." Compa said, and IF nodded.

And so, the two carried Neptune's unconsciousness body back to the hotel.

To be Continued...


	24. The Second Fragment

"You came back!"

Said a voice from inside a book, as a small purple light came through the ceiling of the room where the book was.

The small purple light approached the altar where the book laid on top of, and slowly absorbed into the book.

"Please never do that without telling me again, you're making me worried sick."

A silence enveloped the room for several moments.

"I see, I'm glad everyone's okay. You've done a very good job for saving her life."

* * *

Somewhere else unknown...

There was a beautiful park located in an unknown city, the park was quite big, there were several fountains in there, and a field of flowers.

There was also a playground in there, many kids playfully playing with each other, while their parents watching them from afar.

However, there was a certain short purple-haired girl that unlike the other kids, she was all alone, her parents were too busy from their works, even though they tried their best to spend some time with her, it was not enough for her.

She was lack at social skills, and as the result, she almost never had friends in her life.

The little purplenette was sitting alone on a swing that was located in the edge of the playground, she closely observed as the other kids play with their friends, not even care if she was there or not.

_"Hey squirts!"_

A voice came from behind her, looking back the purplenette saw an older looking boy was standing behind her, glaring at her. Two more boys are standing behind him.

_"W-What do you want?"_

The little girl asked quietly.

_"We want to play! So get off!"_

She looked to her left, then back to the boy that's still glaring at her.

_"But there's still another swings in there."_

_"Are you blind? There's only two swings left and there's three of us, idiot!"_

_"But-"_

_"I SAID GET OFF!"_

The boy unexpectedly kicked the little girl on her back, sending her fall from the swing and into the ground with a loud _thud._ This of course, wasn't new to her. Due to her lack of social skills, the girl often get bullied by other kids, it was so often that she thought it was normal.

And the thoughts bring tears to her eyes.

_"Ha! What a cry baby, pathetic child. Why don't you ran away and cry to your mommy?"_

His two friends laughed along with him, making the little girl's eyes flowing even more tears.

She was about to stand up and leave, but something unexpected happened.

_"Hey, you!"_

The four of them turned their head to the right as a little girl with blue colored hair, wearing a rather revealing outfit, with a red scarf around her neck, pointed her finger towards the bulies. Her face was blurry for some reason.

_"Leave that girl alone!_ _"_

The leader of the boys smirked.

_"And what if I don't? What would you do, flatty?"_

As the boy said that, time seemed to stopped. The blue-haired girl stuttered and shivered.

" _Wh-What... did you... just... said?"_

_"Are you deaf? I said, what if I don't? What would you do, miss no boobs?"_

_"Grr! That's it! You're all will not making out of here alive!"_

The girl charged towards the boys, and the four engaged in battles.

Despite her _small_ stature, the bluenette was very skillful, she managed to beat the three of them without getting hit at all.

After she's done, the three boys ran away, crying out for their mama.

_"That's right, go to your mama! Tell them to never mess with this future hero of justice of Gamindustri!"_

After calming down, the bluenette turned around and saw the purple-haired little girl was still laying there on the ground, she was watching the entire fight between them.

Crouching down, the blue-haired girl smiled at her, and nicely asked.

_"Are you okay? Are you hurt?"_

The purplenette didn't say anything for several seconds, before finally nodded slowly.

_"Good."_

The bluenette offered a hand, and the purplenette used it to stand up.

_"Don't worry, I'm sure those meanies will learn their lesson to never messing around with innocent little girls, unless if they want this future justice keeper to come after them."_

_"T... ky..."_

_"What's that? I can't hear you."_

_"T-Thank you... for... saving me..."_

The purplenette said, in a very low tone, but enough for the bluenette to hear it.

_"Heh, no need to thank me, it was my duty as a justice keeper after all."_

The bluenette said confidently, putting her hands on her sides.

" _Why are you alone? Why don't you play with your friends?"_

_"I... I don't have any friends..."_

_"What? Why?"_

_"I-It's... complicated..."_

The purplenette then turned around and prepared to leave.

_"Thank you for saving me... I'm gonna go home now."_

Before she could leave however, the blue-haired girl grabbed her hand.

_"Come on, don't just leave all of a sudden, let's play!"_

_"Huh? But-"_

_"Come on! It'll be fun!"_

_"B-But I wanna- h-hey wait!"_

Despite her complains, the blue-haired girl dragged the purplenette along with her, and together, the two of them spend the day playing at the playground, until it was dawn.

_"Phew, I'm beat."_

The two little girls were sitting on a bench, relieving their exhaustion after playing all day.

_"Me... Me too..."_

_"But it was a lot fun, I enjoyed our time playing all day."_

The purplenette looked at the girl beside her, her thoughts were full of question.

_"Hey..."_

_"Hm? What is it?"_

_"Why... do you want to play... with me?"_

She asked, and the bluenette tilted her head in confusion.

_"Other people calling me weird... they don't want to become friends with me... so... why do you want to become my friend?"_

_"I don't see why people calling you weird."_

The bluenette answered with a gentle smile.

 _"_ _I think you're a pretty nice girl. Although maybe if you're a bit more... confident_ _with yourself, maybe people will stop calling you weird."_

The purplenette sighed, looking down.

_"I'm... I'm not good at talking with other people... My parents was a very busy people, they only spend a little time with me... I know that they're trying their best... but..."_

She shrugged, and then she felt a hand on her shoulder, turning her head to the right, she saw that it was the blue-haired girl that put her hand on her shoulder, she was smiling.

_"Well then, fear not, I will be around here for some time due to my parents business trip. From now on, you don't have to feel lonely anymore, I will be here with you, for now."_

The purplenette couldn't say a word to reply, she could only stared at the blunette's still blurry face.

 _"You know, I never got your name, even though we spend the day together._ _What's your name?"_

_"Me?"_

The purplenette asked, pointing at herself, and the bluenette nodded.

_"M-My name is... Neptune... Who are you?"_

The blue-haired girl smiled proudly.

_"I am the future hero of justice of Gamindustri, N-"_

* * *

"Nep-Nep! Nep-Nep, wake up!"

Neptune slowly open her heavy eyes, and the first thing she saw was a peach-haired girl shaking her body violently, making her dizzy.

"Compa, stop that! She's already awake!" A brown-haired girl came into her view, and she stopped Compa from what she was doing.

"Iffy? Compa?" Neptune asked softly, sitting up, she stretched her arms upwards while groaning, surprised at how stiff her body felt. "Good morning."

"Don't you 'good morning' us!" IF said with anger and annoyance in her voice. "Did you know how much we were worried about you?" IF asked, glaring at Neptune.

Neptune however, replied with something they didn't expect. "Uh... why are you worried about me? Did something happened to me while I'm asleep?" she asked in confusion.

The two of them fell silent after hearing the question.

"Um, hello? Anyone?" Neptune asked while waving her hand in front of IF and Compa.

"Nep," IF began. "Can you tell us what happened at Expo yesterday?" she asked.

Neptune tilted her head in confusion. "Huh? Why do you ask?"

"Just tell us, please."

"Hmm, well..." Neptune put her hand on her chin, and think. "We participate in the Exhibition Match, representing Chian's company, we faced a very strong robot, we defeated it, and then we finally succeed in taking down Avenir, everyone cheered up, we return to hotel, and then I fell asleep." Neptune explained with all honesty.

Both Compa and IF fell silent again, they stared at each other, and then back at Neptune.

"Is... is something's wrong? Is that not the answer that you're looking for?" Neptune asked, looking at IF.

Sighing, IF shook her head. "No, no, there's nothing wrong." IF answered. "Anyway," IF pulled out her phone and showed it's content to Neptune. "Lastation's CPU, Lady Black Heart, had personally invite us, she want us to be in her Basilicom in about two hours." IF explained, putting her phone back to it's holster.

"R-Really?" Neptune's eyes lit up in excitement. "Yippee!" She suddenly jumped out of the bed. "We're finally-ack!" she fell into the floor as her back spasmed by the sudden movement. "Owwiees... Why is my back so hurt?" after standing up with the help of Compa, Neptune rubbed her aching back. "Maybe I slept in a wrong position, better be careful next time." She muttered softly, before heading into the bathroom.

After she left, Compa and IF looked at each other.

"Compa, do you think what I'm thinking?" IF asked, and Compa nodded.

"It looks like Nep-Nep can't remember the events after we defeated the bad robot." Compa said. "This is exactly the same thing that happen back in Planeptune." She muttered softly, looking at the bathroom's door with cocern. "Should we tell her about what truly happened yesterday?" Compa asked, and IF didn't answer.

After several moments had passed, she slowly shook her head. "No, I think it's the best to not let her know."

* * *

"Lady Black Heart, they've come to see you." A basilicom staff informed his goddess.

"Thank you. You may step out, now."

The staff nodded, Walking to the exit, he opened the door to let Neptune and her companions entered the round room with glass as it's walls, while he leaved the place.

Standing in front of a small room that covered by purple curtains. The party all kneel down in respect.

"It's nice to meet you, heavenly Console Patron Unit of Lastation! It's an honor to be here." Compa said respectfully.

The purple curtains were pulled to the sides, revealing the person who was standing behind it all the time.

"...Nice to meet you." the person was a young girl with black colored hair, tied in twintails, and has a red colored eyes. "I'm the CPU Black Heart, the guardian goddess of Lastation."

The party all gasped in surprise when they saw the CPU, especialy Neptune, who was clearly shocked at the fact that after all this time, a person who she saw as a friend turns out to be the CPU of Black Regality.

"Whoa, hey, hey, hey! You're that injured girl!" Neptune exclaimed in complete surprise. "I woulda never thought after all this time, I had a talk with a goddess!" she said with full excitement.

"I've heard your voice before, but I'm kind of surprised... you look no older than us." IF commented, crossing her arms.

"We don't age in Celestia, so that's probably the reason. This is living, so they say." Black Heart replied.

"Um, you're not talking quite like a goddess anymore..." Compa muttered softly, surprised at how casual the Black goddess is.

"It's only you three. Plus, we're not strangers or anything." Black heard said with a small smile. "You're all my guest, so there's no point of acting stiff and formal."

She extends her hand to the side, and then, a small blue gift box with black ribbons magically materialized in her hand.

"Anyway." she began. "Right after what happened yesterday at the Expo. The Sanctuary people came to my Basilicom, along with many other people who was present during Tech Expo." her expression became serious. "They told me everything about Avenir, from the attempted murder at the Expo, to their secret motives to take over the world using an army of machines that was illegally produced without my permission." she explained.

"Wait, does that mean you never knew about their true motives all along?" IF asked, and Black Heart nodded.

"Avenir were established many years ago, what did they do that time was to improve Lastation's technology in order to surpass the other landmasses." she then sighed. "Seeing how useful they are, I eventually let them become part of the Basilicom, the Parliament. As time continues, the company continuously grows until it almost covered the entire Lastation." she closed her eyes. "Many people suffers because of them, yet I didn't do anything, the company was too important for the landmass to be shutted down."

"Does that mean you're going to let them go?" Neptune asked, and Black Heart sighed before shaking her head.

"No, what did they do yesterday is far crossed the line. Avenir will be shutted down from their operation for good, we will interrogate each of their employees in case if they had another schemes up in their sleeves." She explained.

"Really?" Compa asked with happiness, and when Black Heart nodded, the party cheered in happiness at the news that their goal to bring justice to this land was succeeded.

Black Heart cleared her throat to make the party stopped, and when they do, she extends her hand that was holding the gift in front of her. "Anyway," putting her other hand on top of the box, she slowly untie the ribbons. "That's not the only thing I wanted to tell you."

The party all focused their eyes on the box that she was holding.

"After you guys left the stadium where the Expo was held, I sent a team there to investigate, and they found this thing buried deep in debris and metal scraps." from the box, Black Heart pulled out a small glass case containing an item that glows rainbow colors, and it's shape was like a piece of a puzzle. "Isn't this what you guys were looking for, by any chance?"

The party all gasped in surprise when they saw the item.

"I-Is that...?" Compa stuttered.

"The Key Fragment!" Neptune exclaimed, happily taking the glass case from the ravenette's hand. "We finally found it!"

"Looks like working for Passe and fight against an evil company, wasn't a waste of time at all." IF commented with a satisfied smirk.

"With this, there's only two more to go, and then we can save Histy!" Compa said happily.

Turning her head to face the black-haired CPU. Neptune bowed with full respect. "Thank you, thank you, thank you so much! Please, tell us what to do in order to repay your kindness, your majesty."

"What did I tell you about not being formal around me?" Black Heart asked, looking at Neptune with slight annoyance.

Giggling nervously, Neptune scratched the back of her head and apologized. "Hehehe~ Sorry, sorry, my bad."

Sighing, Black Heart watched as Neptune pulled out the Lastation's Key Fragment from the glass case. Putting the glass case down, Neptune then unzipped her parka slightly, showing her the Planeptune's Key Fragment that she wears around her neck with a cord.

As she brings the fragments closer towards each other, Neptune could see that the two items was almost look exactly the same, with the only differences is that the Planeptune one has a purple gem on the center of it. While the Lastation one has a black glowing gem on the center.

Just like the Planeptune one, the Lastation's Key Fragment are also has a hole on it's edge, and Neptune slipped the cord's edge through the hole, before tied the two cord's edges together again and put the necklace back on.

"So," Black Heart began. "What are you guys going to do now?" she asked curiously.

"We have to continue our mission to save Histy." Neptune answered while zipping her parka up. "Unfortunately, our business in here is done now, so we're going to the two remaining landmass to find the other Key Fragments." Neptune explained.

"I see." Black Heart nodded in understatement. "I guess, all I could say is good luck, then."

* * *

Several minutes later

"Do you have to accompany us? I mean, I like the company, but aren't you busy and stuff?" Neptune asked, confused as Black Heart accompanied the party to the Basilicom entrance.

"It's not like I wanted to accompany you or anything. I'm just... here to get some fresh air." Black Heart said, looking away a little bit.

The party didn't say anything after that remarks.

"Well, if you say so." Neptune said with a shrug. "We'll be leaving now, once again, thank you for helping us finding the key fragments, it means a lot for me." Neptune held her hands in front of her, and the ravenette took it and shake it. Taking back her hand, Neptune smiled at the CPU. "See ya!" she said, turning around.

The party was about to leave when Black Heart called out Neptune's name, stopping them from their tracks.

"Hey, Neptune."

Looking back behind her, she asked the Black CPU in front of her.

"What is it?"

"Do you... still remember that day when we're talking about the goddesses?" she asked softly.

Neptune titled her head at the question, but decide to answer it anyway. "Yes, of course I still remember that day." Neptune said with a nod.

"Then..."

"Hmm?" Neptune was confused when Black Heart slowly approached her.

When their distances were just a few centimeters meters away, Black Heart suddenly lunge forward and hugged Neptune tightly.

_"Thank you, for forgiving me."_

Those words were came as a whisper, behind her, IF and Compa's jaw dropped, completely shocked at the CPU's sudden action.

"What are you talking abo- EEP!"

What was even more shocking however, was Black Heart suddenly bite Neptune's neck. Even though her bite was gentle and not harmfull, it was more than enough to make Neptune squirmed in surprise.

**_"Okay that's all I wanted to say, good luck on your quest, I will always be here if you need me byeeeee!"_ **

As Black Heart said those words at the speed of a mosquito's wings, she quickly released Neptune from her hug, then ran into the Basilicom, slammed the door behind her, and locked it.

"..."

No one can say a word for what just happen.

"What... the heck... just happen?" IF asked in total confusion.

* * *

"So it really is true..."

Black Heart muttered softly, she was leaning against the Basilicom door behind her that she locked, savoring the taste in her mouth.

"She really is not _her_..."

To be Continued...


End file.
